Zack Snyder Explains Which Batman Cardinal Rule He Broke in 'Batman v Superman'

Snyder broke one very important rule for 'Batman v Superman'.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

No matter whether he was in his more campy or sinister era, Batman has always had one rule when putting on his suit: Never kill. (Slight spoiler alert.) This rule has been thrown out of the window a few times but never as drastically as in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Starring Henry Cavill as the stubborn Superman, Ben Affleck as the perhaps more stubborn Batman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, the movie sees the two male superheroes in all their sensitive testosterone-fuelled rage battle it out. The fight is such that both Batman and Superman end up taking lives in their quests to outdo each other. 

Fresh off having a record breaking opening weekend, director Zack Snyder sat down with HeyUGuysto justify the choice to have Batman break his cardinal rule on so many occasions. He says the killings were always "by proxy," that he would find ways to sort of unintentionally kill people: "Shoot the car they’re in, the car blows up or the grenade would go off in the guy’s hand, or when he shoots the tank and the guy pretty much lights the tank [himself]."

Snyder describes it as a "little more like manslaughter than murder," adding, "I perceive it as him not killing directly, but if the bad guys are associated with a thing that happens to blow up, he would say, "'That that’s not really my problem.'" In fact, Snyder’s frames of reference for the killings come from other Batman movies. It was Tim Burton’s that really introduced the rule not to kill but Frank Miller’s comics and a YouTube super cut of every murder Batman commits in Christopher Nolan’s films served as inspiration for a more sinister hero. Maybe this isn’t such a new concept after all. 

Latest in Pop Culture