Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will be an absolutely enormous movie. Between Wonder Woman, Alfred Pennyworth, Lex Luthor, Doomsday, Lois Lane, and plenty of others, it will be a regular "who’s who" of DC lore in addition to the headlining duo. As hard as it may be to believe, the film nearly contained even more appearances from iconic DC characters. We’ve just learned that Zack Snyder at one point intended to include appearances by both The Joker and The Riddler in Dawn of Justice.
According to a new report from Collider, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder recently admitted during a press event that he almost included The Joker and The Riddler in the film. The reveal lacks any specifics regarding the nature of their appearances, but we can likely assume they would raise hell for the Caped Crusader as he preps to fight Superman. Said Snyder,
We talked about the possibility of putting them in. [Screenwriter] Chris Terrio and I talked about it a lot and felt that their mythological presence is felt in the movie, and that’s cool, but I didn’t want to get my eye too far off the ball because I needed to spend the time, frankly, with Batman and Superman to understand the conflict.
It seems that Snyder ultimately decided on a more restrained approach to these villains. Although neither of them will actually show up to face off against the Caped Crusader in the flesh, their existence in this world is made known. We already know for sure that a Joker-ized Robin uniform will be on display in the Batcave (an allusion to the iconic A Death in the Family story arc), and The Riddler question mark will appear vandalized on a Gotham City wall prior to Batman’s showdown with the Man of Steel. Astute fans will be able to pick up on these allusions, but Snyder wisely opted to keep the actual villains waiting in the wings.
As much as we relish any and all opportunities to see comic book characters brought to life on the silver screen, we ultimately think Zack Snyder made the right call by not including The Joker and The Riddler in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The film seems crowded enough as it is, including them could have led to a Spider-Man 3 issue with the film feeling unnecessarily populated by familiar comic book characters. We already know that Jared Leto’s Joker will debut later this summer in Suicide Squad, so right now it’s just a matter of having some patience.
We will keep you posted regarding any and all Batman v Superman updates as they become available to us, be sure to check the film out when it hits theaters later this week on March 25th.
