Zack Snyder has overseen the Superman franchise in recent years, having directed Man of Steel, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and the upcoming Justice League. However, if Snyder does decide to call it a day on directing DC Extended Universe films after he finishes Justice League, then there’s at least one director out there who would be more-than-happy to take over the task of bringing future Superman movie to the screen.
There are no doubt many people who would love to jump aboard and take Superman into the future, but the filmmaker in question here happens to be a little more qualified than most, having already snagged a couple of high-profile directing jobs - including the well-reviewed fantasy film A Monster Calls and the upcoming next installment in the highly-successful Jurassic Park series.
In a Reddit AMA, filmmaker J.A. Bayona said that Superman is the one franchise he’d love to take on as a director:
“The first movie I saw in my life was Superman. I was three years old. The first memory I had was Christopher Reeve flying in the suit. Directing a Superman film would be great. I always wanted to be Superman. That’s the film that made me want to become a director.”
Bayona needs to knock out Jurassic World 2 before he can take on any future Superman projects, and that’s a pretty big job all by itself. If Bayona knocks Jurassic World 2 out of the park, he might very well be able to walk into Warner Bros. headquarters and ask for just about anything he wants, including the chance to take on Superman (assuming that Snyder or someone else isn’t already in line to helm the Man of Steel’s next solo film).
But will there even be another Superman movie in the near future for Bayona or anyone else to direct? That sort of depends on how Justice League goes. For the time-being, the Superman character is locked into Justice League, but there is still talk of a Man of Steel 2 coming along somewhere down the road. Things are somewhat up-in-the-air with all the DCEU characters until Justice League come out and prove to the studio that it makes sense sticking with the properties.
Given the mixed results for Man of Steel and Batman V Superman, at least in the eyes of critics if not at the box office, some folks might argue strongly for Snyder to step aside and let a passionate fan like J.A. Bayona take over. Bayona has already demonstrated that he has the chops to handle big-budget studio properties and he clearly isn’t afraid of taking on such a high-pressure job, either.
Source: Reddit (via Comic Book)
- Jurassic World 2 Release Date: 2018-06-22