Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel is a film that either lives in infamy or is a modern masterpiece, depending on who you ask. The darker take on Superman was released in 2013, and it was the kickoff to DC’s new extended universe of films that were meant to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The DCEU never consistently reached the heights of the MCU, and things were already off to a rocky start after Man of Steel. While the film certainly had its lovers at the time, and it has maintained a dedicated fan base over the years, the overall reception to the film was and continues to be pretty mixed.
Some people believed that the new take on Superman was too dark and felt more like one of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films rather than a hopeful story about the Man of Tomorrow. As a result of this division, Man of Steel wasn’t the massive box office success that it had the potential to be. Warner Bros. and DC grew worried about the new universe that they were meant to be building off the film, so instead of moving forward with a direct sequel, they gave the green light to Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which dramatically increased the speed in which the universe was developed, as it introduced Batman, Wonder Woman and several other key members of the Justice League.
Batman v. Superman was, unfortunately, the beginning of the end for the DCEU. The division over the franchise only worsened. WB lost faith in director Zack Snyder and removed him from the Justice League film which was already shooting, and there was a desperate attempt to abandon the darker tone of the universe in favor of lighter-hearted stories more akin to what Disney was doing with Marvel. While some of the films that came out of this new approach, such as Wonder Woman, Shazam!, and Aquaman, were well-received and found varying levels of success; the overall DCEU idea fell flat on its face with the box office disaster that was 2017’s Justice League.
There was so much potential that was squandered by not moving forward with Man of Steel 2. Looking back, it’s easy to say that all of the DCEU’s issues could have been avoided if DC had moved forward with Man of Steel 2 rather than jumping directly into Batman v. Superman. In reality, things could have gone in a very similar direction, leading to DC being in a similar messy state that it is today. However, a Man of Steel follow-up could have also built a more solid foundation for the universe before it was built toward the Justice League film.
Developing Clark Kent/Superman
Outside of Man of Steel, Henry Cavill’s Clark Kent/Superman gets surprisingly little time to develop throughout the rest of the DCEU and Snyderverse. Although he is one of the titular characters of Batman v. Superman, Superman’s development in the film is a little underwhelming. True, he’s forced to confront whether the world even wants a superman or not, and eventually he decides to give his life to save the people of Earth, but his overall state of mind and being when he makes that decision is at roughly the same place he was at the end of Man of Steel. While the character is given a bit more to do in the Ultimate Edition of the film, it’s still not nearly as much material as he would’ve otherwise gotten from a direct Man of Steel sequel.
Many of the same concepts presented in Batman v. Superman could still have been utilized in Man of Steel 2. Forcing Superman to confront the international questioning of his authority is an interesting idea, especially with Lex Luthor being one of his chief critics and pulling the strings behind the scenes. However, in Batman v. Superman, these ideas are largely just presented and then not built upon or explored in any meaningful way. Clark sort of just gets sad about everything before eventually deciding he still wants to be a hero. A sequel to Man of Steel could have really gotten into the nitty-gritty of this complicated situation. Luthor could still be the villain of the film, but by leaving Batman out of the equation, there would have been a lot more time to really explain Luthor’s plot and how Clark/Superman really overcomes and proves wrong those who doubt his heroism.
Beyond that, with Superman being dead for much of the Justice League film, there’s obviously not much development that could be done with the character there. As a result, across the three films in which Cavill’s Superman appears, there is very little actual Superman-ing that is done. The character is often just caught up in the minutia of different stories, and there’s not a lot of him actually being the superhero everybody says he is. There’s one montage in Batman v. Superman, but even that is played with a dour overtone of people doubting him. There’s very little hopeful Superman in any of the films. Man of Steel 2 could have shown Superman actually becoming the iconic and relentlessly good and hopeful hero that so many people know him as. While he does eventually get there by the end of the Justice League film, it was already too late at that point because the DCEU was already in an unstoppable downward spiral.
Doomsday, Brainiac or Other Superman villains
Superman has one of the best galleries of villains of any comic-book character. While some of the heavy hitters like Luthor and Zod have been depicted before, there are still so many that have yet to make their way to the big screen. Batman v. Superman sort of brings one into the fold with the introduction of Doomsday at the end, but that depiction is very different from the Doomsday of the comics. It’s basically just a big grey beast that was shoe-horned in just to give Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman something to fight at the end of the film.
Again, there are story elements from Batman v. Superman that work and could have made for a great Man of Steel sequel if they were able to be explored further. As already mentioned, the plot with Lex Luthor turning public opinion against Superman is compelling and could have been great. If Doomsday was further developed in a similar story and not just portrayed as a big monster in Man of Steel 2, then DC could have had another great on-screen villain to add to their legendary villainous canon.
One Superman villain that surprisingly hasn’t seen a big-screen adaptation yet is Brainiac. The hyper-intelligent alien android is one of Superman’s best and most well-known villains from the comics, and he is ripe for use in a great Superman movie. Brainiac would have been an excellent villain in a direct Man of Steel sequel, as he could have tied in nicely with Clark’s guilt over the loss of Krypton’s future with Zod at the end of the first film. He would be a new intelligent adversary for Superman on-screen, lessening the character’s reliance on Lex Luthor as a villain while also still bringing that same level of plotting and intellect to the film.
A More Thoroughly Established DCEU
Finally, if DC had moved forward with a Man of Steel sequel rather than Batman v. Superman, it would have given their new DCEU more time to really develop its characters and world before trying to bring it all together in a climactic Justice League movie. WB and DC were impatient and desperate to catch up to the MCU; in doing so they established their universe on a weak foundation which ultimately led to its swift crumbling. They wanted to do what Marvel was doing, but they didn’t actually look at why the MCU was working so well. The MCU worked (and still works) because people like and are invested in the characters and world. They want to see what happens next, and when the Marvel characters eventually come together after each receiving their own films, it is almost always incredibly exciting to see.
If DC had slowed down and really developed the ideas for the DCEU characters and films, they likely could have developed the same consistent success as the MCU. However, by jumping straight into Batman v. Superman and Justice League after Man of Steel, they didn’t leave themselves any time to figure out a gameplan. They just sort of winged it as the years went by, and they ended up paying the price as the universe collapsed in on itself and left the DC brand in a worse place than it was before they started.
By moving forward with a sequel to Man of Steel instead of Batman v. Superman, WB and DC would have given audiences more time to become attached to Cavill’s Superman before introducing other characters into the universe. They could have developed standalone Wonder Woman, Batman, and Aquaman films before cramming them all together into the same space. If audiences were already aware of the new film versions of these characters, they would have been more excited to see them come together in Justice League. The fact is, that because general audiences largely weren’t connected to the characters, they didn’t care about the movies. This lack of affection from viewers doomed the DCEU. By developing Man of Steel 2 after the first film, in conjunction with standalone films for other heroes, WB and DC could have excited audiences with the potential for these new characters. Instead, they tried jumping to the punch before anyone was aware of what was happening. It left a bad taste in a lot of viewers’ mouths, which led to the disastrous box office of Justice League, the cancelation of several DC projects, and ultimately the mess that the brand is still in today.