ZacK Snyder Says WB Passed On Third 300 Movie

Zack Snyder reveals he wrote the third and “final chapter” of 300, but studio Warner Bros. passed because Blood and Ashes “really didn’t fit in as the third movie” of the franchise. Snyder directed and co-wrote 2007’s 300 as his second feature film — based on Sin City and The Dark Knight Returns writer-artist Frank Miller’s five-issue comic book of the same name — and co-wrote and produced its 2014 sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, from director Noam Murro. In a new interview, the Man of Steel and Justice League filmmaker explains why Warners turned down his hoped-for 300 threequel:

“I just couldn’t really get my teeth into it. Over the pandemic, I had a deal with Warner Brothers and I wrote what was essentially going to be the final chapter in 300,” Snyder said in an interview with The Playlist‘s The Fourth Wall podcast. “But when I sat down to write it I actually wrote a different movie. I was writing this thing about Alexander the Great, and it just turned into a movie about the relationship between Hephaestion and Alexander. It turned out to be a love story. So it really didn’t fit in as the third movie.”

The concept “came out really great,” Snyder added. “It’s called Blood and Ashes, and it’s a beautiful love story, really, with warfare. I would love to do it, [WB] said no… you know, they’re not huge fans of mine. It is what it is.”

Now promoting his new Netflix zombie movie Army of the Dead, Snyder has described Warner Bros. as “aggressively anti-Snyder” when asked about returning to the DC Extended Universe. Snyder launched the franchise with 2013’s Man of Steel, following the Superman reboot with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the four-hour director’s cut released on the WarnerMedia streaming service HBO Max.

Snyder opened up about his “unusual situation” with Warner Bros. in a recent interview with Uproxx, saying, “It was cool to do the Snyder Cut of Justice League and that was fun and everything. But Warner Bros. still tortured me the whole time for whatever reason, they can’t help it. I don’t know why I’m such a f—ing pain in their ass because I’m not trying to be, honestly.”

Snyder directed three other films for Warners — 2009’s Watchmen, the animated Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole in 2010, and 2011’s Sucker Punch — and has produced WB releases like DC Films’ Wonder Woman and Aquaman.