Zack Snyder Talks BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN Leaks, Says It’s “About” To Begin Filming

Speaking with The Huffington Post while promoting 300: Rise of an Empire, Zack Snyder talks a bit about his upcoming Man of Steel sequel, aka Batman vs. Superman. As he only produced the 300 sequel, Snyder was asked if he could have directed it thanks to Batman vs. Superman‘s release date delay. “No, no. That’s why I couldn’t do it. We would had to have been shooting now and, even then, we probably wouldn’t have been able to because we’re about to go shoot the new movie.” There has been much confusion over the production start date for the Man of Steel follow-up, with answers ranging from mid-March to May. However, based on Snyder’s comment, it sounds like it will indeed start filming soon.

Talk then turned to the news leaks surrounding the movie. News of Warner Bros.’ plans for a Superman/Batman film found its way online hours before its announcement at Comic-Con. Snyder was asked if he is disappointed by such leaks. “Yes and no. [The leak] was definitely not a planned thing.” Wife and fellow producer Deborah Snyder weighs in on this subject and casting rumors, saying, “Things get leaked so often these days, it’s a shame because even casing announcements, or whatever, you’re in the middle of a process and sometimes they’re so off base — and then it gets picked up by multiple places and it’s all over the place.

“Or some of it, you’re just having conversations, but that doesn’t mean they are a contender, but you’re just exploring and it gets made public,” she continues. “It’s kind of a shame that you can’t go through the process in a pure way and then be able to announce it in a way that’s exciting. With the [Comic-Con] announcement, there was rumblings and we were like, “Aw.” Because we wanted to bring it to the fans. We wanted to bring them something special. We went to Comic-Con for “Watchmen” and we were bringing the cast to announce it and it got leaked a couple of days before. We wanted to give that to them and we got cheated out of it.” Zack Snyder adds, “I think it does another thing. The leak becomes the audience involvement. They are now part of it, the process. Do you know what I mean? And you have to take that as the world we live in, as opposed to “Oh, that’s too bad.””

Zack then comments on the three big casting announcements so far – Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor – saying it was “accurate” that these choices were made on his own timetable. As a result, these announcements were unexpected. “Right! And that was fun. That’s fun for us when we’re able to announce Jesse Eisenberg to the audience.” For Huffington Post’s full chat with Zack and Deborah Snyder – in which they discuss 300: Rise of an Empire, Watchmen, and creating a realistic Superman – click the link above.

Batman vs. Superman (not the final title) is scheduled to hit theaters May 6th, 2016. The follow-up to Man of Steel, the next installment in the DC Cinematic Universe stars Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, and Laurence Fishburne. Zack Snyder directs from a script by David S. Goyer and Chris Terrio.