We know Man of Steel would later become the building blocks for the DC Extended Universe, but fans don’t know the pressure there was to make something as close to the MCU as quickly as possible.
At least, that’s why David S. Goyer disclosed in a recent interview on Happy Sad Confused podcast. The writer and filmmaker spoke to host Josh Horowitz on a recent episode and got onto the subject of a Man of Steel 2. Horowitz expressed that he felt Superman needed a second solo film from Zack Snyder before diving into the universe-building Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which Goyer agreed with.
Goyer reveals that Warner put pressure on the writer and filmmakers to build a massive universe shortly, “I know the pressure we were getting from Warner Bros., which was, ‘We need our MCU! We need our MCU!’ And I was like, let’s not run before we walk,” Goyer said.
“The other thing that was difficult at the time was there was this revolving door of executives at Warner Bros. and DC,” he adds. “Every 18 months, someone new would come in. We were just getting whiplash. Every new person was like, ‘We’re going to go bigger!'”
He continues, “I remember at one point the person running Warner Bros. at the time had this release that pitched the next 20 movies over the next ten years. But none of them had been written yet!” Goyer continued in amazement. “It was crazy how much architecture was being built on air… This is not how you build a house.”
Goyer would pen Man of Steel for Snyder before spending the rest of his time at DC universe-building tentpoles such as Batman v Superman and Justice League; Chris Terrio later replaced him for Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
As we all know, the DCEU had its rough outings at the box office and critically, leading to the current DCU with DC Studios co-chairs James Gunn and Peter Safran at the helm.
David S. Goyer is currently promoting the finale for Season 2 of Foundation, which he executive produces and serves as showrunner for the series on Apple TV+.
Originally published September 25, 2023. Updated September 26, 2023.
