Rather than focusing on what’s actually in the movie, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder has done a lot of talking about what’s not in it. Over the weekend, he said that two characters who aren’t in the film almost made it.
In an interview with Collider, Snyder admitted that BvS almost featured The Joker and The Riddler.
“The Joker and The Riddler both came close to being in this movie. We talked about the possibility of putting them in,” Snyder said.
The director added that he and writer Chris Terrio discussed the two villains’ “mythological” importance to Batman, but “I didn’t want to get my eye too far off the ball because I needed to spend the time, frankly, with Batman and Superman to understand the conflict.”
The decision to leave The Joker out of BvS meant that Suicide Squad director David Ayer was given the chance to shape a new iteration of the character and cast Jared Leto in the role for his film.
As for The Riddler, there’s no immediate plans to bring that character back to the big screen. He is currently played by Cory Michael Smith on Gotham and hasn’t been in a movie since Jim Carrey was Ed Nygma in Batman Forever.
BvS finally hits theaters on March 25, but that version won’t be the only one we will see of the film. Snyder has an R-rated cut ready to go for home video. It is 30 minutes longer than the theatrical cut, which is already 151 minutes.