With Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally released, here’s why The Dark Knight Returns - not Justice League 2 - would be his perfect future project. Snyder, once the custodian of the DC Extended Universe, was set to direct 2017’s Justice League but a tragedy in his personal life forced him to leave the project midway through production. Joss Whedon, who directed Marvel’s The Avengers, was brought in to replace Snyder and - as critics and fans will attest to - ultimately tanked his original vision. In March 2021, following a wave of support from the online community, Snyder’s director’s cut - dubbed Zack Snyder’s Justice League - was released on HBO Max to critical acclaim. While this is assumed to be Snyder’s mic-drop on the whole DCEU, the director has expressed an interest in helming more stand-alone projects for the company in the future.
One such project, The Dark Knight Returns, would be ideal as Snyder’s next DC outing, rather than trying to top his version of Justice League with an ill-conceived sequel. The Dark Knight Returns, often hailed as one of the greatest graphic novels of all time, was written by Frank Miller (of Sin City and 300 fame) and released as a four-issue miniseries in 1986. Set in a dystopian version of Gotham City, Miller’s opus sees an aging Bruce Wayne don the cape and cowl after ten years of retirement. The Mutants, a gang of young thugs, have taken control of the city, and Batman - thought by many to be a myth - is the only one who can stop them.
Not one to hide his influences, Snyder has made his love for The Dark Knight Returns known on numerous occasions - even including elements of the storyline in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Given Snyder’s take on the DC heroes, it’s easy to see why The Dark Knight Returns revs his engine - dealing, as it does, with Batman as “legend”. Throughout his time crafting the DCEU, Snyder has always presented its heroes and stories as modern myths: epic and operatic, or - according to Snyder’s detractors - overblown and self-serious. Either way, The Dark Knight Returns fits that bill perfectly and would be a worthy, stand-alone successor to his DCEU work.
The phrase “stand-alone” could be key to DC’s future output. The DCEU now has a lot of baggage, featuring multiple ill-received movies and casting changes that amount to a wholly incohesive shared universe. 2019’s Joker proved that R-rated, stand-alone superhero movies can succeed at the box office and would be a good USP for DC moving forward, in contrast to Marvel’s family-friendly, shared universe model. DC, late to the shared universe party, would do well to distance themselves from their immediate competitor, and stand-alone projects - helmed by passionate creative teams - would be preferable to muddling on with the disjointed and oft-contradicted DCEU.
All this said, with Snyder’s recent zombie hit Army of the Dead containing numerous easter eggs that hint at a wider mythology, perhaps he is aiming to kick-start his own cinematic universe - entirely separate from the comic book franchises that dominate modern popular culture. Regardless, a shift towards stand-alone properties from DC would mean that Snyder could return to their superhero stable at any time, without having to worry about his movies being vehicles for a wider universe. The Dark Knight Returns, as the title implies, would be an excellent return for the seasoned director, fulfilling a long-held desire to see the DC miniseries adapted for the big screen.