One of the most divisive features of the early DC Extended Universe was undoubtedly how dark and gritty it went with some of its iconic characters. While some fans loved Zack Snyder's darker tone and more grim interpretation of Batman, many others complained that they didn't enjoy the beaten down, cynical version of the character in Batman v Superman.
To be fair, the script for Batman v Superman, written by Chris Terrio, gave Bruce Wayne plenty of reason to be cynical: after a long and storied career as The Dark Knight, on top of the recent trauma of Superman's fight with Zod over the city, Bruce Wayne has taken to more brutal tactics in his fight against crime. This leads to him deciding the only way to keep people safe is to kill the Man of Steel, leading to the title fight of Batman v Superman.
It's a fight that ends with Bruce Wayne realizing the error of his ways and returning to a more traditional crime-fighting loadout, but it could've been much darker. In fact, during a recent interview with Vanity Fair, writer Terrio was asked if he feels blamed for the movies getting too grim and serious. In an interesting response, Terrio actually said that in some drafts of the film, Batman was actually an even darker character.
During the discussion, Terrio claims that, ironically, even though the studio seemed to move away from his writing for being too dark after Batman v Superman, the first draft that Warner Bros. gave him had a much grimmer ending. One of the plot points in the final version involves Batman branding criminals for death with a 'Bat-Brand,' and according to Terrio, that was also a feature of the script he was given to work from: "when I joined the project—Batman was not only branding criminals with a bat brand, he also ended the movie by branding Lex Luthor."
It would've been an ending to remember for sure, and it seems that Batman's history as a morally gray character was baked into the original script one way or another. Still, now that Zack Snyder's Justice League is out, the DC universe seems to be moving away from his particular aesthetic and is striking out to forge some kind of new identity in a post-Justice League world.
That said, the upcoming The Batman film seems to also be leaning pretty heavily on the dark and gritty look, so fans will definitely still have their grizzled Batman to look forward to in one form or another. The real question is what role Batman will play in the DC Extended Universe going forward.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is now available on HBO Max.
Source: Vanity Fair