2016 was a momentous year in the history of American comic book superheroes, marking the official big-screen team-up of DC Comics' two biggest icons – Superman and Batman. However, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was not originally intended to be their first joint appearance; this historic dream team was supposed to happen much earlier.
To understand this, we must rewind to the early 2000s, when Warner Bros. Pictures was still struggling with how to revitalize the DC film and television brand. They hadn't made a Superman film in a long time, and the Batman series had yet to recover from the severe setback of Batman & Robin three years prior.
(Image Source: IMDb)
Even before Batman & Robin sent Batman's cinematic career into hibernation, Warner Bros. had been continuously trying to revive Superman films. They even brought back Tim Burton, who had successfully brought Batman to the big screen, to direct the Superman reboot Superman Lives. However, various ideological differences between Burton, Warner Bros., and producer Jon Peters led Warner Bros. to hit the brakes just before filming was set to begin in 1998.
After Superman Lives was canceled, the internal Superman script development at Warner Bros. entered a chaotic multi-stage phase, with several screenwriters and directors contributing ideas in rotation, sometimes even working on separate scripts simultaneously. One such team, formed in 2001, consisted of Paul Attanasio, screenwriter for The Sum of All Fears, and McG (pictured below), director of Charlie's Angels. However, McG ultimately chose to withdraw to return to direct Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.
(Image Source: IMDb)
It was at this time, the same year McG exited, that Andrew Kevin Walker, screenwriter for Se7en, entered the picture. He was the one who first pitched a Batman v Superman script to Warner Bros. He was originally hired only to write a Superman script, but ultimately had a sudden idea to add Batman into the mix. Warner Bros. liked the idea and even successfully secured renowned German director Wolfgang Petersen, known for The Neverending Story and Air Force One, to helm the project.
However, Warner Bros. was not content with solely developing Walker's proposal, because the following year, they hired another competing contender.
(Image Source: IMDb)
The one competing with Walker was the now-famous, but then-emerging, J.J. Abrams. JJ was hired to write a solo Superman film, Superman: Flyby, and Warner Bros. also intended for Petersen to direct it. JJ envisioned his Superman series as a trilogy, with Flyby being just the first installment.
Although Flyby and Batman v Superman were not initially designed as part of the same series, Warner Bros. and Petersen seemed to have intentions of merging them. According to the recollections of actors who auditioned for Superman at the time, the candidates for both films significantly overlapped, with names like Josh Hartnett and Brendan Fraser both being on the Superman shortlist for both projects and having personally tried on the Superman suit.
Both the Flyby and Batman v Superman scripts were highly regarded by Warner Bros., but they decided to prioritize the seemingly more marketable Batman v Superman, while the traditional origin story of Flyby was temporarily shelved. However, Walker's script was not directly adopted by Warner Bros.; they later deemed its content "too dark" and instead hired Akiva J. Goldsman (pictured below), screenwriter for A Beautiful Mind and previously Batman & Robin, to draft a new script, tentatively titled Asylum.
(Image Source: IMDb)
In Asylum, neither Superman's nor Batman's origins would be mentioned; they would both have been active for many years, already friends who had known each other for quite some time, with their contrasting modus operandi clearly established from the outset. Petersen once described their opposing ideologies as reflecting the "moral ambiguity" that impacted the world after the 9/11 attacks.
In this version of the story, Bruce Wayne had retired from the cowl for five years, and Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, and the original Robin, Dick Grayson, were all deceased, leaving only his fiancée, Elizabeth Miller, by his side. On the other hand, Clark Kent wasn't faring much better; his life was in a slump, having recently divorced Lois Lane.
Bruce and Elizabeth held their wedding, with Clark serving as Bruce's best man. Just as Bruce finally regained some happiness in his life, more tragedy left deeper scars in his heart. During their honeymoon, Elizabeth was tragically murdered by the Joker, forcing an enraged Bruce to don the Batsuit once more, vowing to seek vengeance.
At this time, Clark was embarking on a new romance with his hometown classmate, Lana Lang, while also attempting to stop Bruce from seeking revenge. However, Clark's interference only caused Bruce to direct his anger towards him, leading to a rupture between them and an epic, deadly confrontation. The film would ultimately reveal that this was Lex Luthor's master plan all along, his goal being to incite this "world's finest" duo to turn on each other and kill one another. Naturally, Clark and Bruce would eventually discover Luthor's scheme and re-team to take him down.
(Image Source: DC Comics)
Although Warner Bros. discarded Walker's script for being too dark, Goldsman, in a 2020 interview, still referred to his own Asylum as "absolutely the darkest thing you've ever seen." Even years later, Dawn of Justice maintained a similarly somber tone and a quite similar structure, with Luthor also secretly fanning the flames.
Goldsman's version of Batman v Superman sought out many of Hollywood's most popular stars at the peak of their fame or rising newcomers at the time. For Batman, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell (who now plays the Penguin), and Christian Bale (who later starred in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy) were all on Warner Bros.' shortlist.
For Superman, there were the aforementioned Fraser, Hartnett (pictured below: Hartnett trying on the Superman suit), and Jude Law. According to Goldsman, the most likely pairing at the time was Farrell and Law. However, Law confirmed years later that he ultimately declined, stating that the moment he tried on the Superman suit, he immediately felt he wasn't the right fit.
(Image Source: Reddit)
Warner Bros. originally planned to begin filming Asylum in early 2003, targeting a summer 2004 release. However, at this very moment, Abrams, who had been sidelined for some time, submitted a new draft of the Flyby script to the executives. Upon reading it, then-Warner Bros. President Alan Horn actually preferred Flyby, partly because of its bright and optimistic tone, unlike the gloomy and dark Asylum. After an internal vote, Flyby ultimately defeated Asylum in a landslide victory of 11 votes to 1.
Thus, the previously out-of-favor Flyby recaptured the studio's heart, while the once-favored Asylum was not merely out of favor, but directly cut down. Petersen, who was originally set to direct, ultimately turned his attention to filming Troy instead.
As for Goldsman,