Zack Snyder has revealed where his Man of Steel sequel starring Henry Cavill would have gone. The Rebel Moon and Watchmen director became something of an overseer of Warner Bros.' DCEU in the 2010s, after he launched the new cinematic universe with Man of Steel in 2013. Rather than continue solo-hero efforts like Marvel did in the MCU for a few years, Snyder launched straight into Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as the second DCEU film.
While Batman v Superman was a direct follow-up to Man of Steel, it was no longer just a Superman film, with Cavill's Clark Kent sharing the byline with Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne/Batman. When asked by Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused whether he ever went down the road of doing another solo Superman movie with Cavill, Snyder revealed, "we absolutely did." Snyder continued to explain that their plan was to do a "Superman Braniac solo concept:"
"No, no, we did. We absolutely did. My plan was always to, hopefully, once we sort of established this timeline, we could branch off and go do this Brainiac movie that would have like a Superman/Brainiac solo concept."
Snyder also explained to Horowitz why they chose not to do this Brainiac concept and jumped to Batman v Superman instead, saying that the appeal of Batman was "literally impossible" to resist and that introducing him next would help them to "begin the conversation that there are other heroes in the world," eventually paving the way to a Justice League scenario:
Snyder: "The problem was, once you say out loud, maybe Batman's in the movie, right? It's a really difficult thing to put that toothpaste back in the tube."
Josh Horowitz: "Right, let me set aside this beautiful, gorgeous character for one more movie. It's too tempting?"
Snyder: "It's literally impossible. And so, with my extreme fondness for 'The Dark Knight Returns', I found myself going like, look, you know, we can't not do it, right? It's a way to introduce or to begin the conversation that there are other heroes in the world, other extraordinary heroes. Bruce Wayne, the world's greatest detective, is the obvious hinge pin to us finding these other extraordinary characters, right?"
Snyder directed three films in the DCEU. However, he had producing credits on several others, including Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984, and Justice League. To this day, fans commonly refer to his interconnected films as the "Snyderverse," but this and the DCEU have since been replaced with James Gunn and Peter Safran's new DCU under DC Studios.
What Man of Steel 2 Could Have Been
Looking back at the Snyderverse, fans have long debated whether jumping to Batman v Superman right after Man of Steel was the right decision for the DCEU, particularly as Snyder's Man of Steel 2 concept seemed solid. Moving straight to a team-up film meant Cavill had only one movie to establish Superman, unlike the early MCU heroes, like Iron Man and Captain America, who had multiple films before they crossed over in Avengers.
Interestingly, rumors of Man of Steel 2 resurfaced many years after the Snyderverse seemed to have run its course. Following Henry Cavill's surprising return as Superman at the end of Black Adam, fan hopes that Man of Steel 2 was back on the table were reignited, until James Gunn and Peter Safron were appointed as DC Studios heads and decided to wipe the slate clean.
Surprisingly, Snyder's Superman and Brainiac concept for Man of Steel 2 echoes the direction the DCU is currently taking. Like Snyder, James Gunn also chose to launch his superhero cinematic universe with DC Comics' poster boy, resulting in 2025's half-a-billion-dollar blockbuster starring David Corenswet as Superman.
However, rather than jumping into a crossover film, Gunn announced the next Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, starring Corenswet's Superman and Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor as dual leads, with Brainiac as the major villain.
Superman versus Brainiac is the same path that Snyder had been considering with Man of Steel 2, and now fans in the DCU will be able to see whether this concept would have been the right decision when the DC Studios movie comes out in 2027.
