For Supermanās birthday, GQ caught up with Zack Snyder and asked, āWhat would have Man of Steel 2 looked like?ā
As I just went over in the article about how Zack said Superman is fake if he canāt kill Zod, Man of Steel opened big at the box office and there was talk of doing Man of Steel 2 right away.
However, from what I have been told, the box office fizzled and since Man of Steel didnāt hit that magic billion dollar mark at the box office following the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight movies, Ben Affleck was brought in and Man of Steel 2 was combined with a solo Batman movie to become Batman vs. Superman. That Batman movie became Matt Reevesā The Batman years later.
So at the time, the rumors offered that if Man of Steel 2 was going to happen, it was going to feature Brainiac as well as Supergirl. Recall that tie-in comic and the opened pod in Man of Steel, which was Supergirl. James Gunn actually might be doing a take on that in his Superman movie as both Brainiac and Supergirl are rumored.

What does Zack Snyder say about Man of Steel 2 and Brainiac?
Anyway, back to what Zack says, he makes it seem as if wanted to move in a direction toward Batman. Snyder basically says once you opened the door and Batman exists in Supermanās universe, you canāt close the door and that it becomes about Batman. I donāt agree with that take, but worth a mention is Snyder mentions Man of Steel 2 and Brainiac.
Hereās the transcript:
Hereās what happened in my opinion, like once you talk about the fact that Bruce Wayne exists in the same world as Superman, right?
Then you are into a Batman concept. You have to finish that thought.
Now, āMan of Steel 2,ā if you were to make it, you know, with Brainiac or whatever youāre gonna do, which it certainly could have been, youāre just, and maybe thatās it, you hold it off for a movie and thatās possible.
I just felt like I needed to know what Bruceās take on this was, like Bruceās take on the near destruction of the world. And it really depends on how important you think Batman is in the Trinity.
āCause the truth is, Batman canāt do anything necessarily immediately to stop Superman.
āSupermanā was the most realistic movie Iāve made, which I thought was, is a cool thing to think about.
Like, for me, the most grounded, sort of naturalistic film that Iāve made, and I did that on purpose, was a movie about a guy who could fly.
Zack also told Brobible the following back in 2021:
We talked about a Brainiac movie. But I do think that the Kryptonians that are in the Phantom Zone are probably still around. And there was always a possibility for their return. Faora and whoeverās left. That was a thing that was always out there that we talked about as a possible sequel. I just think itās best to give Superman these extaterrestrial challenges because I think youāve got to be careful with ā other than Lex Luthor, because, of course, you have to continue with Lex, because Lex is his real nemesis ā but I think you really have to look outside of the Earth for challenges for him because of how powerful he is.
(Via YouTube)
