Last week we heard from DC Films storyboard artist Jay Oliva who revealed that Man of Steel was originally intended to be “chapter 1” of a five-part story. He also debunked a near five-year-old rumour.
Man of Steel was released June 14th 2013 and was met with mixed reviews from both critics and movie goers. Warner Bros. were said to have been upset by its £668 million box office total as they had much higher expectations. Jump ahead a few months to Comic-Con and Warner Bros. made the announcement that the next outing for Superman would be a team up with Batman in Batman v Superman. This of course sparked the rumours that Warner Bros. were adding Batman into Superman’s sequel simply to give the movie a boost.
So following Oliva’s reveal about a five-part Superman Story he also stated that he met with Zack Snyder back in April 2013, prior to Man of Steel’s release in theatres the following June. During this meeting Snyder showed Oliva storyboards for one Batman v Superman, which featured a Dark Knight Returns Style Batman.
Okay school is in session… Back in April 2013 (before MoS released in June) I was tasked with doing the Superman 75 short. I met with Zack who was the exec producer on it and he showed me storyboards of BvS with Batman already in it. AND it was a Batman from DKR.
— Jay Oliva (@jayoliva1) April 22, 2018
So finally, this rumour can be put to bed, Batman wasn’t thrown in to give anything a boost. Batman v Superman was always intended to be the sequel to Man of Steel.
Now if Warner Bros. could finally confirm a Man of Steel standalone sequel, we’ll all be happy.
