WhenBatman v. Superman: Dawn of Justicehit theaters in March 2016, it was a cinematic event years in the making.SupermanandBatmanhad been the two biggest heroes in the DC Universe for almost 80 years by the time the film hit. Both had been the stars of successful movie franchises, and fans had always wanted to see the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight share the silver screen together. It seemed that the new age of superheroes, brought about by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, finally made it possible for Superman and Batman to appear on-screen together.
Yet audiences almost got it much earlier, in 2004, 12 years beforeBatman v. Supermanand four years beforeMarvel’sIron Manwould popularize the ideaof a shared superhero universe. Warner Bros. was all in on usingBatman vs Supermanto restart both franchises following the recent boom to the superhero film genre followingBlade,X-Men, andSpider-Man. They went after some major talent that would have resulted in a very different film than what audiences saw and could have changed the trajectory of both franchises. Here is theBatman vs. Supermanmovie we almost got in 2004.
Batman v Superman Would Be a Restart for Both Franchises
Warner Bros. had spent the 1990s trying to restart theSupermanfranchise after the disappointment of 1987’sSuperman IV: The Quest for Peace. They spent years trying to makeSuperman Livesfromdirector Tim Burtonand star Nicolas Cage before canceling the project, partially due to the box office and critical disappointment ofBatman & Robin.Warner Bros. looked to useBatman vs. Supermanas a way to restart both franchises.
In August 2001, Andrew Kevin Walker, best known for writing the script forSe7en, was hired to write the script forBatman vs. Superman. In addition, Warner Bros. hired Wolfgang Peterson, the director of films likeDas Boot,The NeverEnding Story, andAir Force One, to helm the project.
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Instead of telling origin stories for the characters, the movie would have restarted the franchise and put them years into their career. Warner Bros. was so confident inBatman vs. Supermanthat they pushed the movie forward. Warner Bros. then hired Akiva Goldsman, thesame writer fromBatman & Robin, to rewrite Walker’s screenplay.Goldsman submitted his draft in 2002, which was then titledBatman vs. Superman: Asylum.
The Plot of Batman vs. Superman and the Cast
Batman vs. Superman: Asylumwould have picked up five years after Bruce Wayne had retired from being Batman and in the year since Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, and Robin have all died. Meanwhile,Clark Kent and Lois Lanedivorced and began a romantic relationship with their former childhood crush, Lana Lang.
Clark is set to be the best man at Bruce Wayne’s wedding to Elizabeth Miller, a new character created for the film. Bruce’s happiness would be shortlived, though, as the Joker would kill Elizabeth on the couple’s honeymoon, forcing Bruce Wayne to don the Batsuit once more in a quest for revenge. The movie would establish that Bruce Wayne thought the Joker had been dead for years,implying that the studio intendedBatman vs. Supermannot to be a full reboot but a sequel/follow-up to the late ’80s and 1990s Batman films.
While Clark tries to pull Bruce Wayne back from the brink, Bruce blames Clark for Elizabeth’s death. When Batman is about to kill the Joker, Superman steps in, telling him he will have to go through him as he does not want his friend to go down this dark path. The two fight in an epic showdown, with Batman immobilizing Superman with kryptonite. WhenBatman is about to kill the Joker, he stops from giving in to his anger. The Joker then reveals he is a clone created by Lex Luthor, and so is Bruce’s wife, Elizabeth. It was all a plan by Lex Luthor to get Batman to kill Superman. The end of the movie would have seen Superman and Batman teaming up to fight Lex Luthor in his mechanical suit while also dealing with a meteor shower heading for Earth.
Warner Bros. started looking for actors to play the two lead characters. They wanted Johnny Depp for the part of Bruce Wayne/Batman, which would have been one year before the release ofPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearlmade Johnny Depp one of the biggest movie stars in the world.
Josh Harnett was both the studio’sand Petersens’s pick for Superman.Other actors considered for either role included Colin Farrell, Jude Law, Paul Walker, and James Franco.Christian Bale, who was being considered for the part of Batman in Arronofsky’sBatman: Year One, was also considered for Batman in this film before ultimately being cast as the character in Christopher Nolan’sBatman Begins.
Why Did the Batman vs Superman Movie Get Canceled
By 2002, when the new draft of the script forBatman vs. Supermanwas completed, it appeared everything was in place.Spider-Manhad broken the opening weekend record and signaled a new age of superhero movies, with 2003 set to haveDaredevil, X2: X-Men United,andThe Hulk,meaning audiences werehungry for superhero movies. Warner Bros. datedBatman vs. Supermanfor release in July 2004, with filming set to begin in early 2003 for a six-month shoot.
While Warner Bros. president Alan Horn liked the script,he seemed more interested in the standalone Batman and Superman movies.In addition toBatman vs. Superman, Warner Bros. still had standalone projects for both heroes in development. While Darren Arronofsky’sBatman Year Onestruggled at the studio, writer J.J. Abrams had submitted a script forSuperman: Man of Steel(incorrectly referred to asSuperman Flyby).
The movie would have restarted the franchise with anew origin storyintended to kickstart a new trilogy. Abrams turned in his draft in July 2002, just two months afterSpider-Manbroke box office records.Warner Bros. ultimately decided to go with a brighter, more colorful take on the material thanBatman vs. Superman: Asylum, which was a very dark interpretation of the characters and not the best starting place for a new franchise.
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One thing worth noting is that ifBatman vs. Supermanmade its July 2004 release date, it would have been released between August 2003’sFreddy vs. Jasonand August 2004’sAlien vs. Predator. While Warner Bros. certainly had little to fear fromthose crossover movies, it follows a similar pattern of Universal canceling Peter Jackson’sKing Kongin the 1990s due to 1998 also having Tri-Star’sGodzillaand Disney’sMighty Joe Youngin the same year.That might have just been too many vs. movies within a year.
With these factors in place, Warner Bros. decided to pull the plug onBatman vs. Superman. Wolfgang Petersen quickly moved on to Troy, another Warner Bros. movie that would be released in the summer of 2004. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. hoped that the new Superman and Batman solo films they had in development would eventually lead to a newBatman vs. Superman, a crossover film between the two new incarnations. That would not happen, and it would be a decade before the two would share the screen, this time with a new Superman and a rebooted Batman.
The Aftermath of the Canceled Batman vs Superman Movie
Much like how whenWarner Bros. canceledJustice League: Mortaland left a hole in their release schedule that resulted in them delayingHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, therefore givingTwilightthe Thanksgiving 2008 release date,Batman vs. Superman’s cancelation also had significant domino effects. Notably, it left a big gap in Warner Bros.’s summer 2004 slate, so they fast-tracked Halle Berry’sCatwoman, a movie that had also been in development since 1992.Catwoman’s rushed production was evident in the finished film and is now regarded as one of the worst superhero movies ever made, but it was released not to miss the July 05, 2025, release date.
Meanwhile,Warner Bros. moved forward on standalone Batman and Superman movies.Shortly after the cancelation ofBatman vs. Superman, Warner Bros. hired Christopher Nolan to direct a new Batman movie, which ultimately resulted inBatman Begins. The movie was a box office and critical hit, ultimately resulting in Nolan making an even better sequel, 2008’sThe Dark Knight, and then concluding his trilogy with 2012’sThe Dark Knight Rises.
Nolan’sDark Knighttrilogy not only reinvents Batman for the 21st century but also redefined the superhero movie genre. It ultimately made Nolan one of the biggest directors in Hollywood, and studios were willing to give him a blank check on original ideas, which resulted in films likeInception,Interstellar, and recentlyOppenheimer, for whichNolan won the Best Director Oscar. It can be said that the cancelation ofBatman vs. Supermanstarted this domino effect.
The Superman side was a little rougher. Warner Bros. did move forward with J.J Abrams’s drastically different take on Superman known asSuperman: Man of Steeland hired director Brett Ratner in 2002, with Ratner looking at casting many of the sameactors for Supermanthat were considered forBatman vs. Superman, including Paul Walker, Jude Law, and Josh Hartnett. Other actors considered were Ashton Kutcher, David Borienaz, Matt Bomer, and James Marsden. Ratner left in March 2003 before being replaced by McG, where he cast Robert Downey Jr. as Lex Luthor and almost cast future Man of Steel star Henry Cavill in the Superman role a full seven years before he would officially be cast.
The film finally fell apart due to concerns over budget and McG’s fear of flying, preventing him from going to Australia to shoot the movie. In July 2004, hot off directingX2: X-Men United, Bryan Singer joined the production and scrapped the plans in favor of a new original idea that would becomeSuperman Returns. Singer leftX-Men: The Last Stand, which would then be directed by previousSuperman: Man of Steeldirector Brett Ratner, and both movies would hit theaters in the summer of 2006, with 20th Century Foxkilling off Cyclopsdue to star James Marsden choosing to be inSuperman Returns.
In 2003, when Warner Bros. had planned to begin shootingBatman vs. Superman, DC Comics launched the comic seriesSuperman/Batman. While not contingent on the movie happening, it was clear behind the scenes at DC Comics that they wanted a bit of cross-promotion between the comics and the films. The comic launched in October 2003, and the first story arc notably featured Batman and Superman fighting Lex Luthor in power armor and Kryptonite asteroid, likely a reused concept fromBatman vs. Supermanscript.
That original Superman/Batman comic run also reintroduced Kara-Zor El Supergirl to the DC Universe in 2004 after her death inCrisis on Infinite Earthsback in 1986. This new modern take on Supergirl helped introduce the character to a new age, culminating in her own feature film for the DCU,Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
For years, the only reference toBatman vs. Supermanthat existed was in a background shot of 2007’sI Am Legend, with a giant billboard for the hypothetical movie in Times Square.At San Diego Comic-Con in 2013, Zack Snyder officially announced that the sequel toMan of Steelwould, in fact, beBatman vs. Superman.While drastically different, it is interesting the movie still retains that the reason Batman and Superman fight is a plot orchestrated by Lex Luthor.
Had Warner Bros. moved forward withBatman vs. Supermanand released it in 2004, the film landscape would be a very different place. Christopher Nolan might not have even gotten to direct a Batman movie, meaning he might not have gotten the creative freedom those movies afforded him later. Bryan Singer would have stayed on board and finished hisX-Mentrilogy. DC and Warner Bros. would have beaten Marvel Studios to the punch in uniting various superheroes, and the novelty ofThe Avengersmight not have been as big in 2012.
Marvel Studios officially launched in 2005 with the plan to unite their heroes, and one has to wonder if this decision would have been made hadBatman vs. Supermanbeaten them to the market.Most films from the DC franchise can be streamed on MAX, while the MCU is streaming on Disney+.
