Zack Snyder explains why Batman V Superman is nothing to do with The Dark Knight trilogy

Doing the rounds to promote Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, director Zack Snyder has opened up about his casting decisions and the filmmaking process, as well as mentioning his thoughts on connections with his take on the Dark Knight and the one portrayed by Christian Bale.

When asked about Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy in an in-depth interview with Film Ink (via Squareeyed), Snyder was quick to say “This is a total and opposite reality from the Chris Nolan movies.” Though there were some concerns – especially, it would seem, from the studio – about how things were going to tie together, one Batman universe to another; “Even people at the studio would say, ‘Who are you getting from the other movies?’ And I was like, ‘Hey, come on guys, let’s all understand, it’s a different world.’”

Out of respect for Bale’s gravelly take on the Caped Crusader, Snyder was tempted to cast the actor in a role, but says there were hurdles; “We couldn’t hire Christian Bale if we wanted to, because he doesn’t exist in our world. Maybe we could hire him to play another part. We did talk about that briefly. I just wanted to hire Christian to play another part to make that obvious. Christian could play, like, Alfred with age makeup. No! Of course not. But you know what I mean.”

Thankfully, Bale isn’t playing Alfred, and the fact that he is totally uninvolved is a strong move from Snyder.

He was aware that his new world had less limitations to Nolan’s, saying “In the Batman universe that Chris Nolan created, Superman would have a hard time existing. That’s why we did a reboot on the universe, so we could allow these characters to exist together. We needed to do that to have Batman exist in this world.”

Speaking about Ben Affleck’s take on the character, and why they have aged him up a little, Snyder says he “really wanted an old Batman – not, like, decrepit! I wanted a world weary Batman… someone who has had experiences, and Ben has really hit that. He’s a movie star now in the greatest definition of the word. He has gravitas. We’ve greyed his hair a little, and we’ve made him look a bit rough and rugged, in a good way. He’s a great actor, and he’s a big person. He’s 6’4”, and in the boots, he’s 6’6”. I don’t like a small Batman… I like my Batmen bigger!”

When it comes to the future, Snyder says “We’ve been talking a lot about where we’re going to go with Justice League… We kind of knew what Justice League was going to be pretty early on, which allowed us to lay the groundwork in a lot of ways. When you see the movie, you’ll really get a sense that there’s a second layer coming, and filtering down through the film, as far as what’s possible. We slowly introduce the other characters and how they play and what is their purpose and where they are in the world.”