When Zack Snyder was spearheading the DCEU, many fans criticized his approach to the characters at his disposal. There was of course the major backlash to having Supes snap Zod’s neck at the end of Man of Steel, while Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice threw Jimmy Olsen into the mix as an undercover CIA operative who was quickly killed off, and Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight appeared to have no issue with mercilessly slaughtering reams of faceless henchmen.
Despite the constant theorizing that he didn’t fully understand the comic book favorites he was adapting, everyone agrees that he handled the DC universe much better than Joss Whedon ever did. Snyder even claimed that his version of Batman never killed anyone – though there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary – and all sins appear to have been forgiven now that he’s finally putting the finishing touches to his original vision for Justice League.
Of course, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns is regarded as one of the seminal Batman stories, and has already influenced multiple interpretations of the Caped Crusader’s mythos on the big screen from Batman Forever to Joker. And in a recent interview, Snyder admitted that he’d love to create a faithful adaptation of the story and bring it to theaters one day.
“I saw a tweet recently like, ‘Snyder needs to stop reading Dark Knight Returns, he needs to read another Batman comic’. I almost tweeted back. I’m so obsessed with that comic. I’ve always thought that maybe one day down the road as a one-off, just as a crusty old Batman, we’d just do it. It’s a dream I have.”
Snyder has never hidden the fact that he’s a huge fan of The Dark Knight Returns, and with the impending introduction of the multiverse opening up the DCEU to almost unlimited creative and storytelling possibilities on both the big screen and on HBO Max, it can’t be ruled out that the iconic saga will eventually makes its way to live-action with either the Sucker Punch director himself or somebody else at the helm.