Zack Snyder has not fully wrapped his DC era just yet, as the filmmaker recently said he would still be interested in adapting The Dark Knight Returns "if that opportunity arose" in the future.
Snyder is a huge fan of Frank Miller's 1986 comic series, which heavily inspired his movies in the now defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU).
"I'll be 100% honest – I would still make The Dark Knight Returns as a film if that opportunity arose," Snyder said during a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
"Yes, did I steal or borrow or homage as much as I could within the context of the mythology that I was creating? Yes. But the thing about The Dark Knight Returns is that it is a closed loop of awesomeness that owes nothing to anything, except for a masterful deconstruction of gods that we all grew up with," he added.
The filmmaker argued that the spirit of Miller's comic was in Batman v Superman, saying: "BVS is for me, you know, damn, damn what the world would think. I was bound and determined to challenge my gods and find out if they could handle it."
When Horowitz asked him about his earliest memories of reading The Dark Night Returns, Snyder recalled being on a "quest to find the thing that would spark my imagination," and how the DC stories inspired him. "We were pretty much in the Dark Knight, Watchmen era [which] had really struck pop culture and I guess the comic book community more specifically of course," he explained, saying that Dark Knight Returns felt like "it was written specifically for me."
"I feel like The Dark Knight Returns is like someone wrote your myth, and that was amazing. You have this seminal comic book that really profoundly affects you, but with no way of expressing it. At that point of my life, there was no Batman fighting Superman movie that you could possibly, in my wildest dreams, could be a reality."
A few decades later, the wild dreams came true, as Snyder helped shape the DCEU with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder's Justice League before the superhero franchise went through a total makeover under James Gunn and Peter Safran.
For more information on what's next on that front, check out our guide to DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters and stay up to date on all the upcoming DC movies and shows currently in the works.
