Before Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was even a glint in Zack Snyder’s eye, Darren Aronofsky was plotting to make a big screen version of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One. Over the years, though, we’ve seen many proposed superhero movies fail to make it past the development stages, and sadly, this was one of those.
Unfortunately, the studio became more enamoured with the idea of a big-budget project featuring both the Caped Crusader and Man of Steel rather than a low-budget Batman solo film. And although Batman V Superman wouldn’t see the light of day (in that form anyway) for quite a while, many of the components of Batman: Year One would find their way into Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. That film ended up being quite different to what Aronofsky had in mind, of course, and as such, many still wonder how things would’ve turned out had the studio gone with the Year One movie instead.
We’ll likely never know, but in a recent interview to promote mother!, the director voiced his interest in getting back into the superhero game, though it doesn’t seem like it’ll be any time soon. When asked which comic book property he’d be up for helming, Aronofsky said:
“I mean, you know, Superman would always be interesting. But they’re already deep into reinventing him, so that’s not going to happen for a long time.”
From the sounds of it, the director would only be interested in a Superman project if it was a complete reinvention of the character, meaning we shouldn’t expect to see him hop into the DCEU. Presumably, if Darren Aronofsky ever did helm a Man of Steel movie, it’d be somewhere down the road, when the hero inevitably gets rebooted again. Or at least, that’s what we gather from his comment here.
There’s also the fact that the director is a visionary and likely wouldn’t fit within the confines of the DCEU. True, the franchise does allow their filmmakers more creative freedom than the MCU does, but someone like Aronofsky wouldn’t be willing to adhere to any studio guidelines or rules and would want to make the movie his way, which wouldn’t go over well with the folks at Warner Bros. and DC.
Still, you never know what may happen in the future and with WB having recently announced that separate DC cinematic universe, one which will host The Joker, perhaps Aronofsky could fit into there somehow? Time will tell, but we certainly wouldn’t be opposed to seeing the director put his own spin on Superman at some point.
