Zack Snyder Shares His Thoughts on Superheroes: “Superheroes have sexual anxiety. They’re all agoraphobic and incestuous and insane and addicted to violence “

Anyone familiar with Zack Snyder’s films recognizes his distinctive and often polarizing approach to filmmaking. Snyder is celebrated as a visionary by some and criticized as a disappointment by others, but he never fails to evoke strong reactions. While he has delivered some of the most iconic comic book adaptations, he has also faced criticism for several shortcomings.

Snyder’s style is characterized by its dark and gritty tone, occasionally blended with campiness and exaggerated elements—an unusual combination that can be challenging to balance (as evidenced by Schumacher’s Batman films). His works provoke both praise and scrutiny, yet one consistent trait is his affinity for eccentricity.

And superheroes are central to his work. Whether they’re adaptations of comic books or not, all of his films fall within this genre. In a recent interview featured on Letterboxd, Snyder shared his thoughts and perspectives on superheroes as a whole.

In his conversation with Evan Schwartz, Snyder focused largely on his film ‘Sucker Punch,’ a project he conceived and continues to defend despite its widespread critical and commercial disappointment. Alongside this, he addressed various topics and articulated a distinct perspective on superheroes as archetypal characters, shedding light on why he portrays them in his unique style.

ES: I would love that. What were some of the most frustrating studio notes you received?

ZS: It’s a very self-reflexive film. It was a comment about where I felt like the state of movies were. It was right after Watchmen, which I felt was deconstructive. That’s the interesting thing to me. It’s like my track record. Like, look, I deconstructed this film. I feel like Dawn of the Dead is a deconstructionist film, that deconstructs the genre and is self-aware of the genre. I thought I couldn’t make Dawn of the Dead as a straight remake because the movie is social commentary and so I wanted to make a comment on the comment, you know what I mean?

And then I made 300, which I’d been working on because I’m a big Frank Miller fan. I’m a Dark Knight Returns fan and 300 was the book I could get my hands on. I wanted to do Sin City, I wanted to do Dark Knight Returns and I love 300 so I made it as a love letter to Frank Miller.

In concert with that was Watchmen. Watchmen to me is like the ultimate deconstructionist comic book. Superheroes have sexual anxiety. They’re all agoraphobic and incestuous and insane and addicted to violence. 

I always said when I was making Man of Steel – you have to know the rules in order so you can break them. Well, I broke them first, and then I made a movie. It was the wrong order, but it’s fine.

But when I went to make Sucker Punch, I was so genre self-aware. Sweetpea says, “What the fuck is this? This is meant to turn the people on?” – which is a reference to the movie itself. She says, “I get the helpless mental patient, but lobotomized vegetable; that’s not sexy.”

And then she says, “You’ve got to change the ending. Maybe a dance number at the end – a song – people wanna be tapping their toes and singing on the way out, you know? It’s better for the scores.” I took out the thing about the dance number at the end, because we had taken the dance number out, but there was that whole exchange between her and Gorsky – this self-aware, self-reflexive ‘audience observing the movie,’ and yet it’s talking directly to them about what they wanna see.

They wanna see the girls, they don’t wanna see the girls empowered. They wanna see them in sexy outfits. That was the whole thing to me; I always thought it was interesting when people would review the movie and say it’s exploitative. It’s like an anti-war movie that gets the war too good.

Source: Letterboxd

And all this insight from the creator of ‘Sucker Punch,’ huh? Perhaps irony eludes him, or perhaps there’s more to it. What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Snyder, or do you find it all nonsensical? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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