Zack Snyder Explains Why Batman Kills In Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice

Director Zack Snyder getting out ahead of what is sure to be a contentious point of Batman v. Superman: Dawn Justice: Why does Batman kill?

While Snyder’s Dark Knight isn’t the first version of the character to take a life, most fans consider that a line the Caped Crusader simply won’t cross. Here’s the justification offered by Snyder, in an interview with Hey U Guys:

I tried to do it in a technical way. There’s a great YouTube video that shows all the kills in the Christopher Nolan movies even though we would perceive them as movies where he doesn’t kill anyone. I think there’s 42 potential kills that Batman does! Also, it goes back and includes even the Tim Burton Batman movies where this reputation as a guy that doesn’t kill comes from.

So, I tried to do it by proxy. Shoot the car they’re in, the car blows up or the grenade would go off in the guy’s hand, or when he shoots the tank and the guy pretty much lights the tank [himself]. I perceive it as him not killing directly, but if the bad guy’s are associated with a thing that happens to blow up, he would say that that’s not really my problem.

A little more like manslaughter than murder, although I would say that in the Frank Miller comic book that I reference, he kills all the time. There’s a scene from the graphic novel where he busts through a wall, takes the guy’s machine gun…I took that little vignette from a scene in The Dark Knight Returns, and at the end of that, he shoots the guy right between the eyes with the machine gun. One shot. Of course, I went to the gas tank, and all of the guys I work with were like, ‘You’ve gotta shoot him in the head’ because they’re all comic book dorks, and I was like, ‘I’m not gonna be the guy that does that!’

It seems Snyder is dealing in degrees of greyness, similar to how Batman in Batman Begins was unwilling to kill, but was just fine with leaving Ra’s al Ghul to die.

Check out when Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and other movies are coming out in ComicBook.com’s Movie Release Schedule.