There’s still about eight months to go until "Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice" hits theaters, but given how heartily Warner Bros. has thrown the movie into the press machine already, you might think it was coming out in just a couple of weeks. Perhaps part of the reason the promotion has started this early is to get everyone used to Ben Affleck now wearing the cape and cowl, and give Zack Snyder an opportunity to move out of what he admits is a very long shadow cast by Christopher Nolan‘s trilogy of Dark Knight movies. And in fact, he’s a bit relieved not to be shouldering the weight of delivering a solo movie about the character.
"If it was a Batman movie it would be a much more difficult proposition because of how good Chris’ movies are. We live in gratitude to those movies," Snyder told Empire. "Chris set a tone for the DC Universe, and separated us from Marvel in a great way. We are the legacy of those movies."
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However, while Nolan may have set the darker tone, he stepped away after executive producing "Man Of Steel," from becoming heavily involved in building Warner Bros. upcoming slate of superhero movies. Snyder wants to make it clear that everything is happening organically, and that even though "Justice League" is coming before many of the spinoff movies, they’re all in service to a bigger vision.
"What we are doing is ground up all the way. It is one giant story. The first thing we had was the ‘Justice League’ concept. The other movies, in a way, have to support that. That is our Wonder Woman, our Aquaman. They have their own creative concepts that supports them, but they do serve ‘Justice League’ in the coming together of those heroes," he said, while also teasing what Empire describes as an "elusive" cameo for Aquaman in ‘Batman v Superman.’
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And echoing the sentiments of Warner Bros. chief Greg Silverman, Snyder says that while everything is mapped out, filmmakers coming into the universe will be able to put their mark on the material. "I want all the other directors of the other films to be able to stretch their legs and do what they want, but at the same time there is a big interconnected universe," he said. "I have given everyone amazing access to our story, to me, and what we are doing. All the films have like-minded conceptual jumping on points."
But before we get to "Wonder Woman" and "Aquaman," BVSDOJ will have to be a success. It opens on March 25, 2016. [via Comic Book Movie]