The version of the DC Universe Zack Snyder has created through his films teases a vast and ever-expanding universe that the films simply haven’t had enough time to explore. There’s the history of the Mother Boxes and the Fourth World introduced in “Justice League,” the entirety of Atlantis, and also the long and unseen career of Ben Affleck’s Batman, which was merely teased in “Batman v Superman.” Turns out, Snyder almost gave us a comicbook prequel, until DC Comics turned it down.
During an interview with SnyderCutBR, the filmmaker teased his would-be prequel. “We talked about doing a [comic book tie-in]. DC, they decided not to do it,” Zack Snyder said. “But we did talk about doing, possibly, I wanted to do a sort of a mini kind of comic book run on the death of Robin, and what happened. How Joker killed Robin, and what it did to Batman and started him sort of down this darker road that ended, kind of culminated with the arrival of Superman. That would be cool.”
This is not the first time Snyder has talked about comicbook tie-ins that never materialized. Last December, he told TheFilmJunkee about conversations he had with DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee about a comicbook continuation that would explore the “Knightmare” alternate timeline first seen in “Batman v Superman” where Darkseid rules the world. The comic would have followed “the ragtag team that’s left alive trying to put it back. Inside of that story, we would also do that story of Joker killing Robin.”
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“The Joker is somehow involved in the stealing of the Mother Box and using it to create the treadmill. Cyborg is going to do the math, ‘This is what we’re going to have to do to jump back in time and warn Bruce correctly,'” Snyder added at the time.
It seems Zack Snyder really wants you to see Robin get brutally murdered, no matter what. For better or worse, he hasn’t got the chance to explore the darkest chapter in Batman’s history, but who knows, another huge fan campaign and maybe we can see Joker beat Robin to death with a crowbar in glorious 4K.