Man of Steel Writer Says Standalone Sequel Should Have Come Before Batman v Superman

dc Man of Steel flew into theaters 10 years ago, launching Warner Brothers’ attempt to match the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s box office success with the DC Comics characters. Zack Snyder directed the film a script with David Goyer which hauled in $668 million worldwide. Quickly after the film, an announcement at San Diego Comic-Con revealed its follow-up film would be Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Now, Goyer has revealed his thoughts that a solo Man of Steel sequel should’ve followed the film rather than the DC ensemble which included Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and cameos from other DC Comics heroes. 

Goyer joined Josh Horowitz on his Happy, Sad, Confused podcast where the two took a look back at Goyer’s big career moments. When discussing Man of Steel, Horowitz asked if a solo sequel should’ve followed the film rather than Batman v Superman. “Yeah, I think so,” Goyer admitted. “There was and but it’s would’ve, should’ve, could’ve,” when it comes to ideas about a standalone Superman movie with Henry Cavill, Goyer said. However, when asked to share what those ideas were, Goyer shied away from revealed too much, claiming it to be “bad form” to share such details about a movie that didn’t get made.

Cavill went on to play Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League before finally returning to the role in 2022’s Black Adam. Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson moved mountains at Warner Bros. to get Cavill back in the suit and even got the solo sequel to start moving behind-the-scenes. However, the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe changed quite unexpectedly when Warner Bros. Discovery hired James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-CEOs of DC Studios, scrapping all of the sequel plans and spinoffs coming from Black Adam and several other parts of the DC franchise before them.

As it turns out, Warner Bros. was pushing to try to match the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its interconnectivity within the comics-on-screen franchise. “I know the pressure we were getting from Warner Bros., which was, ‘We need our MCU! We need our MCU!’ And I was one of the people that was saying ‘Let’s not run before we walk. They were very methodical in how they built, we just can’t jump into these things,’” Goyer said. “The other thing that was difficult at the time was there was this revolving door of executives at Warner Bros. and DC. Every 18 months someone new would come in. We were just getting whiplash. Every new person was like, ‘We’re going to go bigger!’”

Now, in 2023, Gunn and Safran seem to be hoping history does not repeat itself as they have announced much of their 5-year plan for movies and shows in Chapter 1 of their DC Universe. “I remember at one point the person running Warner Bros. at the time had this release that pitched the next 20 movies over the next 10 years. But none of them had been written yet!” Goyer recalled of the DC efforts a decade ago. “It was crazy how much architecture was being built on air. For me, some of that stuff that was going on at that time, it was like, this is not how you build a house.”

Would you have liked to see Henry Cavill play Superman again before David Corenswet took over the role? Share your thoughts in the comment section!