comic-con 2013

Comic-Con: The Man of Steel Sequel Will Also Star Batman

HENRY CAVILL as Superman in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “MAN OF STEEL,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
Photo: Clay Enos/Warner Bros

Just before the Warner Bros. panel started at Comic-Con today, word leaked online that WB was set to announce some major, major moves: a Superman-Batman movie! Something with The Flash! Justice League, finally! So we waited. And we waited. And almost two hours later, Man of Steel director Zack Snyder, finally, finally took the stage. “I know there’s been a lot of speculation as to what we’re doing,” said Snyder. “It’s official that we are gonna make another Superman movie.” The audience cheered, and while Snyder wouldn’t divulge the plot, he did tease, “I can say that maybe there’s a single element that’s in the film that I could help you out with. And so I was thinking about how to do that, and I sort of pored through the DC universe to look for a way to tell this thing.”

With that, Snyder brought out his Man of Steel actor Harry Lennix — “His voice is way better than mine” — to read a passage from Frank Miller’s 1986 comic Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a line of dialogue said from Batman to Superman: “I want you to remember, Clark, in all the years to come, in all your most private moments … I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you.” (Suffice it to say, then, that when Superman meets Batman in Snyder’s next film, they’re not exactly going to get along.) The Superman logo then flew onto the the screen, with the Batman logo appearing behind it.

“We’re not adapting this [comic book],” cautioned Snyder, “but it is the thing that will help tell this story.” No matter: Fanboys lost their shit anyway, even if we don’t know who will be playing the Caped Crusader opposite Henry Cavill’s Superman. Snyder then departed, failing to address today’s report from THR that after the Batman-Superman team-up — which is going by the working title World’s Finest — DC and WB are planing a Flash movie that will then lead into the studio’s own riff on The Avengers, the long-awaited, superhero-stuffed Justice League. For now, you’ll just have to content yourself with Cobie Smulders as Lego Wonder Woman.

Man of Steel Sequel Will Also Star Batman