The upcoming return of Henry Cavill in a Superman solo movie gives DC a chance to revisit Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder's original Man of Steel plans for a Superman movie trilogy. Despite mixed reviews and controversial story decisions, Man of Steel was granted a sequel with Zack Snyder returning as the director. The resulting project ended up being Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which would continue the story of Man of Steel but with Batman in it – essentially putting an end to Nolan and Snyder’s original plan. Five years before Man of Steel Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight put DC at the top of the superhero movie conversation Nolan’s Batman Begins had already succeeded in rebooting the Batman franchise eight years after the critically-panned Batman & Robin, but no one could have anticipated the impact The Dark Knight would have on the audiences and on the industry as a whole.

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The project that would become Man of Steel was envisioned by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan when the duo was still working on The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale made clear that The Dark Knight Rises would be their final Batman movie, but the studio wanted to replicate Nolan’s success with Batman in another franchise. For Man of Steel, Christopher Nolan was not the director but was heavily involved as a producer, and the idea was for director Zack Snyder to helm what would be a Superman trilogy. However, once the Man of Steel sequel became Batman v Superman and Nolan’s role in the project got reduced, the original Man of Steel plan for a Superman trilogy was scrapped. By using it as the launch pad for the burgeoning shared universe, the DCEU ultimately failed Nolan's original vision. However, Cavill's return means that many of the ideas for Man of Steel 2 may still see life on the big screen.

Man of Steel Was Supposed To Be Nolan’s Batman Begins For Superman

Henry Cavill as Superman in Man of Steel

Man of Steel shares a lot of similarities with Batman Begins. That is no surprise considering that both Man of Steel and Batman Begins were Christopher Nolan productions written by David Goyer. Man of Steel’s non-linear narrative is very much similar to what Goyer had previously done in Batman Begins, a clever strategy to tell an origin story with faster pacing. Similar to Batman Begins, Man of Steel tried to ground its main character on reality as much as possible. Obviously, Superman can never be as realistic as Batman, but Man of Steel still tried to hold on to some sense of realism.

Zack Snyder made Krypton into a high sci-fi world and created in-universe explanations for the superpowers shown by Superman, Zod, and the other Kryptonians. Man of Steel even featured a scientist, Doctor Hamilton, as a prominent character whose role in the story was to provide explanations for the Kryptonian's powers and plans. Superman being a sci-fi character had already been done in the comics, but it was only in Man of Steel that such an element was brought into the big screen. All of those decisions make clear that the original Man of Steel plan positioned the movie as the Batman Begins of a Superman trilogy, and that the Man of Steel sequels would try to mirror the rest of the Dark Knight trilogy.

Man of Steel 2 Would Have Been A Smaller Story (But Became BvS)

Batman in Batman v Superman and Superman in Man of Steel

Considering that the plan was for Man of Steel to be the start of a Superman franchise, Nolan and Snyder's Man of Steel 2 would have been a much smaller story than Batman v Superman by default. That was confirmed by Man of Steel and Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder himself, who before Batman v Superman was released revealed that he wanted Metallo to be the Man of Steel sequel's villain. Concept art for Metallo had even been made, but those plans were scrapped once Warner Bros. asked for Batman to be in the film. Curiously, Zack Snyder did want to add Bruce Wayne in Man of Steel 2 – but only as a post-credits scene at the end of the film to nod at Batman existing in that universe. Previously, a Wayne Enterprises satellite could be spotted in Man of Steel.

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Still, the leap from a Bruce Wayne reference to Batman being heavily featured in the movie made it so that Batman v Superman could never be the sequel to Man of Steel Christopher Nolan and Snyder originally planned. It’s also important to remember that Christopher Nolan was not actively involved with either Batman v Superman or Justice League, meaning that the original Superman franchise planned before Man of Steel and the DCEU turned out to be two completely different things.

The Avengers’ Success Prompted Warner Bros. To Launch A Shared Universe

The Avengers assemble in The Avengers

It is also important to remember that 2012, the year The Dark Knight Rises was released, also saw the premiere of Marvel’s The Avengers. After a four-year setup that started with the also universally praised Iron Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe saw the conclusion of its first phase with The Avengers, a movie that also redefined the superhero genre in many ways. Superhero teams on the big screen were nothing new, especially for Marvel, but 2012's The Avengers was the first movie to bring together superheroes from different movie series in the style of a comic book crossover. The MCU strategy worked perfectly, and The Avengers went on to make $1.5 billion at the box office. Suddenly, Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was no longer the only reference for superhero films, and now all the studios wanted to have their own Avengers-style IP. However, Warner Bros. was the only one to actually have an IP that could rival Marvel — DC Comics. That helps explain why the studio pushed for not only Batman but the entire Justice League to be featured in the Man of Steel sequel.

Man of Steel Could Work Better As Its Own Franchise

DCEU Knightmare and Henry Cavill as Superman in Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice

In hindsight, it is clear that Man of Steel would have worked much better as its own franchise rather than the start of a DC Universe. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy made its mark on pop culture without any sort of connections to a bigger story, and the same could have happened with Man of Steel. Not only that, but Zack Snyder’s approach to Superman was far too divisive to be the center of a DC Universe that would involve several other characters and filmmakers. If Man of Steel 2 avoids too much involvement with the DCEU, it would provide much more freedom to tell his Superman story without risking affecting the future of a much larger franchise. It's also possible that Cavill's Superman could appear in an alternate universe movie outside the shared DCEU continuity, similar to The Batman or Joker.

A solo Man of Steel 2 could be judged by its own merits as a Superman movie sequel only, as opposed to Batman v Superman, which had to be multiple things at the same time. Nothing guarantees that the original plans for Man of Steel 2 would have been better received than Batman v Superman, but a proper Man of Steel sequel would have been at least more truthful to what Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder had originally planned for the Superman franchise.

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Man Of Steel 2 Is A Chance To Revive Nolan's Ideas

Henry Cavill in Man of Steel with intense stare

Cavill's return to the role of Superman in an upcoming Warner Brothers movie provides the perfect opportunity to revisit Nolan's original plans for Man of Steel 2. Most of the original studio executives who changed the original concept are now gone, with James Gunn taking over as the creative head of DC Studios and David Zaslav as the head of Warner Brothers following its merger with Discovery. Zaslav has said he wants an interconnected superhero universe, but there also seems to be more room for smaller-scale DC stories, as evidenced by the success of The Batman and Shazam.

It's difficult to imagine either Zack Snyder or Christopher Nolan returning to work on Man of Steel 2, however. Both have had well-publicized splits with Warner Bros — Nolan over the studio's strategy of shifting theatrical releases to HBO Max, and Snyder over the extensive editing done to Justice League prior to release. Despite the HBO Max release of Justice League's "Snyder Cut" and fans' calls for the completion of Zack Snyder's planned five-film story arc, it seems the studio is still of the opinion that Snyder's dark vision of the DC Universe is a creative dead end. The desire to re-focus on an interconnected universe, and the teasing of a showdown between Superman and Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam could also lead to the kind of tie-in bloat that dragged down Batman vs. Superman.

Nevertheless, there are still concepts from Nolan and Snyder's Man of Steel sequel plan that the upcoming Superman film could use. A smaller-scale story would be a great way to shift away from the excesses of some past DCEU movies, as would using Metallo or another Superman villain that hasn't appeared on the big screen before. It's too late for the exact Man of Steel 2 that Nolan and Snyder envisioned, but DC could still take some inspiration from their plans to create a deserving Superman sequel.

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