Zack Snyder said the quiet part out loud Saturday night.
On stage with Frank Miller at a packed Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, Snyder was asked when they are going to make The Dark Knight Returns. The comic is already done, Snyder noted, before delivering the line of the night: “when they let us.”
“When They Let Us”
“They” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Snyder didn’t say if. He didn’t say maybe. He said when, and he said it sitting next to the man who wrote the book, with “us” hanging in the air.
Snyder has spent a decade framing The Dark Knight Returns as his superhero endgame, saying back in 2023 that with Watchmen and TDKR done he would be pretty much finished with superheroes, and confirming on Happy Sad Confused this past February that he would still make it if the opportunity arose.
And per my reporting, the “they” is about to change. As CBN exclusively reported, Snyder has been described as “gung ho” about adapting The Dark Knight Returns and finishing his Justice League arc once the Paramount takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery closes, with the SnyderVerse fully back in play as the De Luca-Abdy era takes shape. Saturday night, Snyder pointed at the gate himself.
This was a capacity crowd, and it skewed hard toward the faithful: Zack Snyder’s Justice League shirts, Batman v Superman caps, and an electric room well before the lights went down. A number of Cosmic Book News readers also came up to say hello, so thank you for the support.
“We Want Justice League 2”
It was that kind of room, and the room made itself heard. At one point a fan yelled out “we want Justice League 2,” and Snyder didn’t let it pass.
“They’re all f’d up, so don’t forget that part… I mean all the characters, I mean…” Snyder replied.
That “so don’t forget that part” did the work. It played in the room as a jab at the studio over what’s been done with these characters, and everybody caught it.
Snyder Signs Something Special Backstage
The night had one more moment after the conversation wrapped. Backstage, Snyder signed something special for one lucky fan: a copy of Superman: The Definitive History that has become a traveling autograph gallery, already carrying signatures and sketches from comic book legends including Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, John Romita Jr., Gerry Conway, and more.
Snyder added his signature to the collection, with the fan’s signed copy of Push the Wall from the night’s limited signing sitting right on top.
Snyder: “An Unforgettable Night”
Snyder shared his own look back on Sunday, posting a selfie with Miller, who repped a Dark Knight Batman tee for the occasion, and calling it “an unforgettable night with the legend himself.” He also gave Push the Wall a full-throated recommendation, telling fans to go pick it up.
The second slide of that post is its own story: a video morphing The Dark Knight Returns into live action.
And if anyone thought Saturday’s room was an outlier, the comments filled up fast with fans demanding The Dark Knight Returns and Justice League 2 and 3. The message isn’t going anywhere.
The Timing Is Everything
The sit-down caps a week where Snyder and Miller both broke nine-month silences on X six minutes apart, on the same day Push the Wall hit shelves, with Snyder scoring his Instagram announcement to Tom Holkenborg’s “We Do This Together” from the Zack Snyder’s Justice League score.
It also lands with the Paramount deal hanging in the balance: twelve state attorneys general led by California’s Rob Bonta sued Monday to block the acquisition, a temporary restraining order fight is underway, and Paramount now says it aims to close by late September. Which means “when they let us” may literally run through a courtroom first.
And it all heads straight into San Diego Comic-Con: Preview Night is Wednesday, July 22, the con runs July 23 to 26, and Miller is there as a Special Guest.
Push the Wall: My Life, Writing, Drawing and the Art of Storytelling is out now from Saga Press, and Miller wraps the tour July 30 in London at the Royal Geographical Society. Saturday’s event closed with a limited signing, with pre-signed copies available.
Cosmic Book News will be on the ground at San Diego Comic-Con all next week, so stay tuned.
