Though for all intents and purposes, when you think of “Man of Steel,” “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and “Justice League,” the creator that springs to mind first and foremost is Zack Snyder. And as director, that’s definitely understandable. But when it comes to ‘BvS’ and “Justice League,” you can’t talk about the creation of those films without mentioning screenwriter Chris Terrio, who came to the DC film universe after working with Ben Affleck on “Argo.” Now, after years of negative criticism from fans and reviewers and reports of huge amounts of studio interference on his DCEU films, Terrio is speaking out about his time with Batman, Superman, and the rest of the DC superheroes. And you shouldn’t be surprised to know, he’s not a happy man.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, screenwriter Chris Terrio, who co-wrote the script for ‘BvS’ and is sole writer for “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” finally breaks his silence about working with Warner Bros. on the superhero films that have become incredibly polarizing since their release. And Terrio has thoughts. Lots and lots of thoughts.
Of course, his work with WB and Zack Snyder began with “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” And though Terrio is happy with his script for the film, he thinks the negative feeling regarding the finished feature started way back when WB debuted the title for the film.
“I heard [the title] and I thought, It just sounds self-important and clueless in a way. Tone-deaf,” Terrio admitted. “The intention of the film was to do something interesting and dark and complex, not quite as Las Vegas, bust ’em up, WWE match as ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.’”
The ‘BvS’ issues continued when he saw the finished film and noticed that large chunks of character development and motivation were stricken from the film, instead focusing on the fights and the action scenes. Losing these chunks of his script, he believes, derailed the entire film.
“So this house of cards that had been built in order to motivate this clash between America’s two favorite heroes made no sense at all,” he said. “That was what happened with ‘Batman/Superman.’ The movie was always was going to be dark. There were always going to be people who just didn’t want to see that version of a comic book world, and I get that. But what hurt was the criticism that the script was not coherent, because when I turned in the script to the studio—which they, by all accounts, were happy with—it made sense.”
After ‘BvS’ failed to excite critics and didn’t do as well as WB hoped at the box office, the writer said he felt there was a “mood of fear at the studio.” It was his impression that executives began making creative decisions regarding the superhero film universe, which was a peek as to what was to come with “Justice League.”
As we now know, back in 2017, Joss Whedon was hired to help write scenes for “Justice League” reshoots to add levity and a more bright tone to the film. After a personal family tragedy, compounded by these new studio mandates, Zack Snyder departed the production and that’s when Chris Terrio believes everything fell apart.
“I went into such depression when the film was taken away and rewritten,” Terrio said. “But I didn’t even feel entitled to be depressed, because Zack and Debbie [Snyder] were dealing with their family tragedy. Measured against that, losing the film that you wrote seems like nothing at all. But it did hurt. It hurts to think that I cared so much about these characters and worked on nothing else for a very long time.”
Terrio doesn’t describe the theatrical version of “Justice League” as rewritten from his script. Instead, he said that his script was “vandalized” by the new folks in charge of the film. He didn’t enjoy the new version at all, and at one point, he even looked into taking his name off the project completely. Unfortunately, for that to happen, the film would have been delayed and would have brought even more negative news to the franchise. So he “shut up.”
“When those personal touches were removed from the film in the 2017 version, I was silent because I couldn’t really say anything, but of course it hurt. All that remained was a dinosaur skeleton of what had been a great, lumbering beast. It might’ve been a big, unruly beast, and obviously, it’s four hours and the movie is maximalist and it’s operatic and, sure, it’s a little crazy, but I think the movie is crazy in the best way.”
Of course, much like Snyder, Terrio was particularly happy that the new version of “Justice League” fleshed out the story of Ray Fisher’s Cyborg character.
“It was always the heart of the film to me, and just meant so much to me personally, because so much of my heart and life were put into that story,” he explained. “That is the thing about this version of ‘Justice League,’ that none of it was done cynically or as a money grab, or an attempt to sell Happy Meal toys. It really was personal for me and for Zack and for many of the actors.”
Ultimately, as we saw last month, WarnerMedia would acquiesce and release “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” on HBO Max, after spending a reported $70 million on finishing the cut of the film. Terrio seems pleased with the new version and how it is much more faithful to his script. But it’s clear, Terrio’s experience working on these DCEU films left a mark on the screenwriter.
“Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” as well as most of the DCEU films are available now on HBO Max.