Director Zack Snyder reveals more details about his planned Batman and Lois Lane romance that would’ve created a love triangle with Superman but was cut from Zack Snyder’s Justice League and never got to see the light in the DCEU. Snyder directed three movies for DC, which include Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021). After the poor critical and audience reception to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, DC’s management decided to move the DCEU in a new direction, abandoning Snyder’s plans for the universe. The director’s vision included two more Justice League movies to conclude a trilogy and a shocking Bruce and Lois romance.
Speaking with Avengers: Endgame directing duo, the Russo Brothers, for their podcast, Pizza Film School, Snyder revealed more details about the abandoned controversial romance between Batman and Lois from Justice League.
According to Snyder, the romance was part of his original Justice League script. Bruce and Lois would share a brief romantic relationship before Superman was brought back to life. With Clark alive once again, Lois would tell Bruce that she still loved Superman, breaking up with the billionaire. However, “Batman had already fallen in love with Lois” by then. Check out the full quote below:
Snyder: I think in the original script, Lois and Batman got together briefly. And there was this whole other thing that everyone was like, ‘Oh my God, you can’t do that.’
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Snyder: And… then I loved the idea of like setting up this sort of concept… it’s sort of like in a movie like where the husband goes off to war, and he’s dead, and the wife moves on, and then the husband appears, like, ‘I’m not dead. I’m fine.’
Joe Russo: How do you deal with that?
Snyder: Yeah, how do you deal with that? And that was kind of… I was super into that concept that, ‘Oh no, Superman can be brought back to life. So now what happens with this?’ And it was that, Lois was like, ‘I’m still in love with Superman. You were kind of a thing.’ But then at that point, Batman had already fallen in love with Lois.
Would A Bruce Wayne & Lois Lane Romance Have Worked In The DCEU?
Snyder’s DC movies were the source of many controversies over the years due to the director’s more out-of-the-box ideas for how to use DC’s canon. The negative reception to most of the director’s ideas led to his plans for the DCEU’s future being dropped, making it unlikely for Snyder to direct a DC movie again. One of his abandoned concepts included the dead Robin whose costume was seen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice being revealed to be Dick Grayson, rather than Jason Todd, diverging from the comics. Both that idea and the Bruce and Lois romance would have surely generated even more backlash for the director.
Some comic book couples are so iconic that when the characters are broken up and date other people, it never quite feels right. Lois and Clark are one such couple, perhaps even DC’s most popular one. Snyder’s idea of having Lois and Bruce share a romantic relationship after Batman had just tried to murder Superman in their last movie together would likely not have gone over well with most fans. While the director comments that his planned romance for the duo would’ve been brief in Justice League, its repercussions would have been something to behold.
Storyboards from Snyder’s original vision for the abandoned sequels that would make up a Justice League trilogy in the DCEU revealed that Lois was going to be pregnant with Bruce’s baby. After Batman sacrificed himself, the story would flash forward 20 years into the future, finding Clark raising Bruce’s son with Lois as his own and the young man being teased to become the next Batman. While that plot certainly would have been original, it was too messy to adapt, as the studio thought. Ultimately, it was better that the Batman and Lois romance subplot was canned from Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Source: Pizza Film School
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