Culture news “There’s no way you’re going to do that” Christopher Nolan was against this scene that changed Superman forever
In 2013, Man of Steel was released, the first stone of the DCEU laid by Zack Snyder. A film which brings darkness to the character of Superman, until now the paragon of the immaculate hero. A divisive choice from the start of the project to which Christopher Nolan himself initially opposed.
The cornerstone of the DCEU
Shortly after the success of The Dark Knight trilogy, Warner Bros. decides to take a new turn with the adaptations of DC comics and respond to Marvel with the establishment of the DCEU. To begin with, the first project is entrusted to Zack Snyder who must bring Superman back with Man of Steelan ambitious origin story which must not only bring up to date a hero considered obsolete by many, but also lay the solid foundations of the DC cinematographic universe.
Obviously ambitious project, Man of Steel divided critics upon its release, but still managed to gross nearly $668 million at the box office. A real success which will then dictate the course of action for all future productions. However, originally the film could have been very different as explained by Zack Snyder and screenwriter David S. Goyer when it was released in 2013.
A darkness difficult to accept
From the beginning of the film, Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer wanted to bring more meaning to the values of this emerging hero. In Man of Steel, Clark Kent is not yet quite Superman as he discovers his powers, his origins, but also his motivations. The director and his screenwriter therefore wanted to make an impression and explain Superman’s aversion to murder. To do this, he had to kill someone: Zod, the big bad guy of the film. However, this idea did not please Warner and Christopher Nolan, then producer of the feature film.
I was like, “I really think we need to kill Zod and I feel like Superman needs to kill him.” To me, it was explained like this: if this is truly an origin story, his aversion to murder is unexplained. It’s just in his DNA. I thought if we put him in an impossible situation, forced him to do it, it would work. I also thought that would explain why he wouldn’t kill again after that. (…) – Zack Snyder.
(…) We started talking to people at DC and we asked, “Is it possible for Superman to kill someone?” and they initially told us “impossible”. But what if he had no choice? Initially Chris (Nolan) didn’t even want us to write this, but Zack and I said, “We think we can find a way to convince you.” So I came back with this idea of heat vision and these people getting ready to die, and I wrote the sequence and I gave it to Chris and he said, “Okay, you’ve convinced me.” (…) – David S. Goyer.
A profitable choice, which therefore convinced the producers, but also the public. The darkness of the film and the vision of Zack Snyder will have influenced the entire DCEU, at least until the end of the filmmaker’s involvement. And it is also from this moment that we note the decline of the DC cinematic universe, since it lost this singularity which allowed it to stand out from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.