When the book is written about this era of superhero filmmaking, there will be a special chapter for Zack Snyder and his much-hyped, but short-lived run with Warner Bros. on DC films such as “Man of Steel,” “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and “Justice League.” Hell, there’ll likely be a full chapter devoted just to the mess that occurred around the latter film. And while there’s been a lot of talk about the behind-the-scenes drama, there’s still plenty of confusion about what happened and people would like to know the full story, including “Man of Steel” actor Michael Shannon.
Speaking to JoBlo, Shannon was promoting his new film, “The Quarry” (which we gave a solid grade to in our review), and he was asked about his time working with Zack Snyder on “Man of Steel.” As you might expect, the actor was complimentary of his director and explained what a shame it is that the filmmaker’s vision wasn’t fully realized.
“Yeah, you know, I love working with Zack Snyder and I think it’s very sad-he’s been through a lot of hardship recently-I don’t know what happened with that whole DC thing,” said Shannon. “I think it’s a shame. I mean, his vision for ‘Man of Steel’ I thought was incredible. I don’t know how that all went off the rails, but I think it’s a shame.”
As far as what’s publicly known, Snyder was expected to help craft the DC film universe after the success of his “Man of Steel” reboot. But after the so-so fan response from ‘Batman v Superman,’ Warner Bros. started to feel a bit of apprehension. However, he was already deep into production on “Justice League” at the time. From there, it’s said that WB wanted someone to come help Snyder with reshoots on the new film, but a family tragedy forced the director to step away. In came Joss Whedon, and “Justice League” was completely retooled without Snyder’s involvement.
That’s just the CliffsNotes version, as the real story is likely more dramatic and probably will never see the light of day. However, much like Shannon, there is a very vocal group of Snyder fans that are upset that WB didn’t follow through with the filmmaker’s vision. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that there’ll be a satisfying conclusion on this chapter of film history. Instead, fans and Shannon will continue to have a lot of questions.
