Zack Snyder Says Audiences Are “Exhausted by Comic Book Movies” and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS Is the Answer

Zack Snyder still has one Batman story he’d love to bring to the big screen, and he thinks the current state of superhero movies makes this the perfect time to do it.

The filmmaker says he’d return to the world of DC for an adaptation of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, the legendary 1986 comic that helped redefine Batman and superhero storytelling. For Snyder, it would also serve as a fitting companion to his 2009 adaptation of Watchmen.

While promoting his new filmThe Last Photograph, Snyder explained why The Dark Knight Returns remains the comic book project he wants to tackle.

"The reason why it's The Dark Knight Returns, if anyone would ever let me do it outside of the DC Universe since it's a novel that just happens to have superheroes in it, is if I could do Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, those two books next to each other, to me, represent the complete cycle of the superhero comic book medium," Snyder told Variety.

"You can do no more than those two books. Watchmen came at the beginning of the superhero movie phase, so it would be super fitting to have The Dark Knight Returns come now, at what I would say is possibly – I don't want to call it the twilight, but we're down the road of the superhero movie genre, and I think audiences would understand the why of it."

Anyone familiar with Snyder’s DC movies knows how much Miller’s comic has influenced his vision of Batman. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice pulled heavily from The Dark Knight Returns, from the massive armored Batman suit to several images that looked like Miller’s comic panels brought to life.

Snyder has always had an eye for translating comic book imagery to the screen. 300 and Watchmen are packed with shots modeled closely on their source material, and Batman v Superman gave us a taste of what his take on Miller’s Batman could look like.

What interests Snyder now, though, is the timing. He believes superhero movies have reached a point similar to where comics were when The Dark Knight Returns arrived in 1986.

"Let's not forget: The Dark Knight Returns was written for a comic book audience that was very exhausted by comic books in the same way that Watchmen was, so having that movie written now for people who are exhausted by comic book movies would be a good time," he added.

That’s an interesting argument, although whether moviegoers are actually tired of superheroes is another question. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is currently the biggest movie of the year, and Marvel Studios still has Avengers: Doomsday coming to theaters on December 18. There’s clearly still an audience ready to show up when a superhero movie catches their attention.

Still, The Dark Knight Returns isn’t exactly a conventional superhero adventure. Miller’s story follows an older Bruce Wayne who comes out of retirement and puts on the Batman suit again in a brutal Gotham City.

It’s a darker examination of Batman, aging, violence, politics, and the superhero mythology itself, which helps explain why Snyder sees it as something that could stand apart from an ongoing cinematic universe.

Whether anyone at DC would actually hand Snyder the keys to Batman again is a completely different matter. His time with the character ended before the DC Universe moved into its current era, and there’s currently no indication that a Snyder-directed Dark Knight Returns is being developed.

Batman already has another major theatrical outing on the calendar as Robert Pattinson is set to return as Bruce Wayne in The Batman: Part II, which arrives February 18, 2028.

Even so, a standalone Dark Knight Returns movie directed by Snyder is easy to imagine. He’s been pulling inspiration from Miller’s comic for years. Giving him the chance to finally adapt the whole thing would certainly make for one hell of a Batman movie.

Would you want to see Snyder finally make his version of The Dark Knight Returns?