Zack Snyder on why Batman breaks his cardinal rule in Dawn of Justice

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

There’s a lot of fans up in arms over whether or not Batman would or should kill. He’s certainly done his fair share over the movies that have been released so far, even if it was indirectly, but odds are that’s still going to continue going forward. With the release of BATMAN V SUPERMAN, director Zack Snyder weighed on why he thinks it’s okay for the Dark Knight to deal out the ultimate punishment from time to time.

I tried to do it in a technical way. There’s a great YouTube video that shows all the kills in the Christopher Nolan movies even though we would perceive them as movies where he doesn’t kill anyone. I think there’s 42 potential kills that Batman does! Also, it goes back and includes even the Tim Burton Batman movies where this reputation as a guy that doesn’t kill comes from.

So, I tried to do it by proxy. Shoot the car they’re in, the car blows up or the grenade would go off in the guy’s hand, or when he shoots the tank and the guy pretty much lights the tank [himself]. I perceive it as him not killing directly, but if the bad guy’s are associated with a thing that happens to blow up, he would say that that’s not really my problem.

A little more like manslaughter than murder, although I would say that in the Frank Miller comic book that I reference, he kills all the time. There’s a scene from the graphic novel where he busts through a wall, takes the guy’s machine gun…I took that little vignette from a scene in The Dark Knight Returns, and at the end of that, he shoots the guy right between the eyes with the machine gun. One shot. Of course, I went to the gas tank, and all of the guys I work with were like, ‘You’ve gotta shoot him in the head’ because they’re all comic book dorks, and I was like, ‘I’m not gonna be the guy that does that!’

So what do you think? Does Batman actually killing criminals take away from his character, or do you find it fitting? I suppose it depends on the situation, but I certainly don’t have any qualms about him permanently taking down bad guys if it’s not gratuitous. Then again, I’m not as fluent with the comic character as other fans, so what do I know? I’m pretty sure that’s the least of the criticisms when it comes to DC’s latest!

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE is now in theaters.