One of the more poignant shots amid the city-levelling chaos of the Comic-Con trailer for Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice was the image of Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne not only running directly into the rubble and smog in true Batman fashion, but of The Caped Crusader cradling a young girl – his daughter, perhaps? – outside of a fallen Wayne Enterprises building.
For the uninitiated, this scene takes place in Metropolis during the tail-end of Man of Steel, neatly dovetailing Zack Snyder’s origins story together with 2016’s grand and mythic blockbuster. Said to take place a full 18 months before the meat of Dawn of Justice, Henry Cavill spilled the beans on the film’s prologue during a recent interview with Total Film.
Featured as part of the outlet’s month-long coverage of Warner Bros.’ mega-film, the actor touched base on the defining battle between General Zod and Supes, and why it’s enough to marshall Batman out of his self-imposed retirement and back into the thick of the action.
“What happens there is one of Bruce’s buildings gets destroyed and he’s trying to save all the people inside the building and he can’t,” the British actor explains. “So he is this angry person who fears what Superman may do. Why are they just going to trust this super-powered alien? What if he does decide to turn against us?”
It’s here that we will begin to see a rivalry form between the two comic book titans. Batman, in fear of Superman bringing destruction to Gotham and the rest of the world, dons the cape and cowl once more to put a stop to his destruction. While Superman, coaxed by Jesse Eisenberg’s devious Lex Luthor, begins to view Affleck’s vigilante as a true threat.
“He’s found himself in a place of harboring a tremendous amount of rage for Superman. So it’s how he got there, and what that’s done to him, and what that’s done to people around him like Alfred, who are, I think, very scared and worried for him. It’s something that’s interesting and new.”
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice will open in all of its mighty and mythic glory on March 25, 2016.
