Zack Snyder got the chance to complete his DCEU trilogy with the HBO Max release of Justice League earlier this year, but don’t expect him to be able to do the same with the 300 franchise. Snyder brought Frank Miller’s sword-and-sandals epic comic to the screen in 2007, with the Gerard Butler vehicle standing as one of the filmmaker’s most popular works. The 2014 sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, which Snyder only produced and co-wrote, wasn’t as successful, though.
Still, Zack has been attempting to get a third chapter off the ground in the years since. In a new interview with The Playlist, the director revealed that he was working on 300 3 as recently as last year. The script he was writing took off in an unexpected direction, however, one that Warner Bros. didn’t want to go down, as Snyder had hoped to explore a gay romance between Alexander the Great and his general, Hephaestion.
“I just couldn’t really get my teeth into it. Over the pandemic, I had a deal with Warner Brothers and I wrote what was essentially going to be the final chapter in ‘300.’ But when I sat down to write it I actually wrote a different movie. I was writing this thing about Alexander the Great, and it just turned into a movie about the relationship between Hephaestion and Alexander. It turned out to be a love story. So it really didn’t fit in as the third movie.”
Snyder went on to add that the film would’ve been titled 300: Blood and Ashes and called it a “beautiful love story,” just with added “warfare.” While he would relish the chance to make said movie, he made clear that WB “said no.”
“But there was that concept, and it came out really great. It’s called ‘Blood and Ashes,’ and it’s a beautiful love story, really, with warfare. I would love to do it, [WB] said no… you know, they’re not huge fans of mine. It is what it is.”
This is just the latest suggestion from Snyder that his long-held partnership with Warner Bros. is over. Though he was allowed to release his Justice League cut, the director and the studio still clashed creatively on the project. For one, they forbade him from using John Stewart’s Green Lantern in the film, which almost led Snyder to walk away from it. Likewise, he’s said before that he’s confident he’s made his last DCEU movie.
Instead, Zack Snyder has opened up a new partnership with Netflix, starting with zombie heist flick Army of the Dead starring Dave Bautista, which arrived in cinemas this past week before it debuts on streaming on Friday, May 21st.