For the fourth anniversary of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder did a new director's commentary, which is currently available only through his Vero profile. Released in March 2016, Batman v Superman remains one of the most divisive superhero movies ever, with fans and detractors debating the quality of the movie, as well as its story elements, just as much today as they did back then.
Fans’ intensity only increased after Justice League, when Snyder left during post-production due to the death of his daughter. Joss Whedon took over writing and directing the reshoots, greatly changing the movie. Fans of Snyder’s work wanted to see the version of Justice League he’d originally intended, leading to demands for the Snyder Cut/Zack Snyder’s Justice League to be released. The demand for the Snyder Cut is further fueled by the Batman v Superman Ultimate Edition, which changed the movie considerably and is the preferred version by most fans.
On Vero, Snyder did a live commentary for the Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition. The stream doesn’t include the movie itself, just Snyder’s commentary, so getting the full experience requires syncing up the archived stream with the Ultimate Edition of the movie. Due to server issues from the amount of traffic, accessing the archived stream of Snyder’s commentary can be difficult at the moment. At the time of writing, the stream wasn’t working through the website but could be accessed through the Vero app.
Snyder's Batman V Superman commentary has provided a number of interesting details about the movie and what his version of the larger story would have been like. In his version, General Swanwick (Harry Lennix) is Martian Manhunter, a shape-shifting alien with telekinetic abilities who knew Superman’s identity - leverage he had over Clark Kent that he chose never to use. Snyder also further clarified the infamous Martha moment during Batman and Superman's fight. Batman is about to stab Superman when Superman croaks the name “Martha”. This stops the fight cold as Batman realizes their mothers share the same name. In Snyder’s commentary, he explains that in this scene, it was Batman’s realization that he was becoming like the man who murdered his parents that pulled him back at the last minute.
The new director's commentary wasn’t all enlightening, as Snyder didn’t fully understand the Knightmare sequence himself, or at least played coy with exactly what happened or what it meant. In this dream sequence, Batman fights demons and soldiers sporting Superman's insignia out in the desert. The scene ends, followed by a quick appearance by The Flash, but that appearance is also just a dream as Bruce wakes up for a second time, and none of this is ever mentioned again. Snyder gives multiple possible meanings to the scene but never settled on one, further highlighting how odd it was in the movie.
These reveals and more are in Zack Snyder’s commentary for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, currently available through the Vero app. Even years later, with the DCEU going in a different direction, the interest in Snyder’s version of the story is still quite high. While there’s still no sign of the Snyder Cut, the Batman v Superman director’s commentary provides a good look at what happened in the movie and how things may have played out had Snyder continued to guide the DCEU.
