It’s been said that Warner Bros. only decided to move forward with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice just days before the announcement was made at Comic-Con. They clearly didn’t put a lot of thought into the matter then, but the prospect of finally having these two heroes meet and jumping straight to Justice League clearly appealed to them after Man of Steel.
The reception to that movie was mixed, so it’s easy to see why the studio ended up going down this route, but based on comments from Russell Crowe during The Nice Guys press tour, it sounds like a Man of Steel trilogy was being planned at one point.
“Originally — I could be completely wrong — I think there was a number of Superman movies. But I think they made the decision to jump past those and go to the idea of Batman and Superman in the same film. So, no, I didn’t have any discussions about that at all.”
At least one more Superman movie would have no doubt made a huge difference to Batman V Superman, especially as it feels like we skipped a huge chunk of Clark’s life after Man of Steel (seeing him settling in at The Daily Planet, developing as a superhero, moving in with Lois Lane, etc.).
Whether or not we’ll ever return to the Man of Steel franchise remains to be seen, and will likely depend on how well Justice League does this year. Ben Affleck’s Batman movie seems to be moving along nicely enough, but it’s going to feel very strange to have the Dark Knight on the big screen while Superman is left on the sidelines, don’t you think?
