Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and now Zack Snyder's Justice League. The universe-launching trilogy is now complete and available to watch on HBO Max.
Man of Steel is the 2013 feature film based on the DC Comics character Superman.
Henry Cavill stars as Clark Kent in this origin story, which marks the start of the DC Extended Universe series of films set in a shared continuity. The film depicts Jor-El's (Russell Crowe) doomed efforts to save Krypton, which faces both natural disaster as well as a violent uprising lead by General Zod (Michael Shannon). Jor-El manages to save his son by sending him to Earth where he is adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) who race him as a human being. Clark grows into a hero, but it's only a matter of time before Zod brings his war to Earth.
Man of Steel was directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay by David S. Goyer. It was met with a mixed reaction by fans and critics who enjoyed the visual spectacle, but were puzzled by the movie's lack of humor and color, and overall dark tone. It did well at the box office, giving Warner Bros the confidence to greenlight several sequels including 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2017's Justice League, as well as a planned direct sequel.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is the 2016 direct sequel to 2013's Man of Steel.
Henry Cavill reprises his role as Clark Kent (aka Superman). Superman's immense power has caught the eye of two other major characters, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), who saw friends die in the destruction of Metropolis, and Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), an enigmatic figure that fans know well as Wonder Woman. Batman has a strong mistrust of Superman is developing countermeasures to keep him in check. Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) is also actively working to destroy Superman on many levels, first manipulating public trust, and then manipulating Batman himself into direct battle. Luthor's master plan is to develop a creature from Superman's DNA called Doomsday. When he unleashes it, it's up to the three heroes to stop him.
The film was directed by Zack Snyder from a script by Chris Terrior and David S. Goyer. It is the second installment in the DC Extended Universe and is a direct lead-in to Justice League.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is a reworked "director's cut" of the 2017 film Justice League, developed for HBO Max by Warner Bros.
The initial release of Justice League was marred by director Zack Snyder's early exit from the film due to a family tragedy. The studio hired director Joss Whedon to finish the film, which created a great deal of controversy as a result. Whedon made significant revisions to the story which became less ambitious and focused on the secondary villain Steppenwolf, instead of Snyder's intended antagonist Darkseid. The resulting film was less-than-satisfying to fans, who immediately began demanding to see "the Snyder cut."
In 2020, Warner Bros announced plans to meet fan demand, allow Snyder to finish his vision for the movie and release it on the soon-to-launch HBO Max service. This would be more than a re-edit of the film as significant portions were never finished. The studio agreed to budget the additional filming as part of the new vision. Snyder went to work on the new version which is set to stream in 2021.
