It’s learned if everything would have gone according to plan, that Man of Steel would have been the first of five DC movies from Zack Snyder.
DC animated director and concept artist who worked on the DC movies, Jay Oliva, tweeted out that Man of Steel “was supposed to be chapter 1 of a 5 chapter story.”
A fan tweeted to Oliva that, “If you told me 5 years ago that MAN OF STEEL still wouldn’t have a sequel, but the whole world would know who The Vision is…I might have thought you insane.”
“Man of Steel was never meant to have a sequel because it was supposed to be chapter 1 of a 5 chapter story. Notice how BvS follows exactly after MoS? It’s like book two of Harry Potter,” Oliva replied.
Jay Oliva then confirmed four of the five movies that were supposed to be released as a fan questioned, “Man of Steel, BVS, JL, JL2, & ??”
“Yep,” Oliva responded.
Zack Snyder departed the DCEU with Justice League, which saw Joss Whedon take over to finish.
We can guess the fifth movie could have been a solo Batman movie.
Man of Steel was never meant to have a sequel because it was supposed to be chapter 1 of a 5 chapter story. Notice how BvS follows exactly after MoS? It’s like book two of Harry Potter.
— Jay Oliva (@jayoliva1) April 22, 2018
Yep
— Jay Oliva (@jayoliva1) April 22, 2018
Regarding a Man of Steel sequel, it’s said a new Superman movie is presently in development, but whether it’s “Man of Steel 2” is currently unknown. I’m guessing if another Superman movie is made, it will be titled something different since Zack Snyder will not be a part of it and is no longer attached to the DCEU.
Future appearances from Superman and Henry Cavill could come in the upcoming Shazam! movie and possibly even Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam solo flick.
Rumors also have it the real reason there was no Man of Steel 2 was because the first one didn’t hit a billion dollars at the box office. Shortly after the release of Man of Steel, which had a pretty huge opening, there was talk of a Man of Steel 2; however, the movie faded away at the box office and only brought in $668 million. It was said prior to Comic-Con, the idea to do a Batman vs. Superman was thought of, and they went with that. Batman vs. Superman was said to be a combination of two different scripts, Goyer’s Man of Steel sequel, and a solo Batman movie. Eventually, Chris Terrio would give it a rewrite.
It could also be possible that some of Goyer’s Man of Steel 2 ideas have made their way into the Superman SYFY Krypton series (Brainiac).
I felt Man of Steel was a really good movie, but Snyder’s decision to attempt to make it a “Dark Knight” was its nail in the coffin. Two scenes stand out as big problems for me in particular, with the Pa Kent death scene and the killing of Zod. The latter I actually didn’t mind as much as the former. Someone brought up a good point on Reddit, that if Snyder would have used a younger actor instead of Henry Cavill for the Pa Kent death scene, it would have come off a lot better. I agree. Using Henry Cavill essentially equated the character to Superman, so in fans’ eyes, Superman just let his father die, but if they would have went with a different actor in the scene, it would have come off as completely different, and not seem like Superman just sat there and didn’t do a thing.
Regarding Zod’s death, I think it’s been said if they were going to keep him alive, they would have somehow froze Zod. I would have preferred that route as then Michael Shannon could have appeared in other DC movies. I thought he was a fabulous villain along with all the other Kryptonians. I’d love to see Antje Traue as Faora on screen with Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman.
Batman vs. Superman was a complete disaster; everything Superman in the movie came off pretty awful, IMO. Snyder basically butchered everything to do with Superman in the movie: Superman, death of Superman, Doomsday, Zod, killing off Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor, killing off Mercy Graves who debuted in the Superman animated series, etc. Why??
On the topic of Justice League, we know the Joss Whedon version wasn’t what Snyder had intended, but essentially the failure of Batman vs. Superman had doomed Snyder’s future in the DCEU. I’m guessing if Snyder hadn’t already started on Justice League while doing Batman vs. Superman, he would have been gone from the DCEU and never would have had a chance on Justice League to begin with.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Zack Snyder. I like his visuals, his “epic” take on the DC movies, his casting choices. I like his serious take on the material (unlike the Marvel goofy “popcorn” movies), but when it comes down to it, it seems Snyder couldn’t provide a quality story.
I would actually be curious to know Snyder’s “unadulterated” plans if Man of Steel would have been a huge success.