INFLUENCE

“There’s no superhero science-fiction film coming out these days where I don’t see some influence of Zack. When you watch a Zack Snyder film, you see and feel his love for the potential of cinema. The potential of it to be fantastical, to be heightened in its reality, but to move you and to excite you.”

Christopher Nolan, Atlantic, 26 December 2023

The Ohio State University Marching Band performed Hans Zimmer’s Man of Steel theme at the October 26, 2013 OSU vs. Penn State football game.

Faora was introduced to the New 52 continuity with an appearance identical to her Man of Steel depiction in Superman/Wonder Woman #4 (2013), written by Charles Soule and illustrated by Tony S. Daniel.

The classic shot of Superman punching Zod across Metropolis in Man of Steel is referenced by Injustice 2 (2017), the CW’s Supergirl (2015-2021), Paramount’s Sonic 3 (2024), and highly popular video series’ like Death Battle (twice) and Superman vs Hulk. At no point prior to 2013 has this exact same shot been done before.

The iOS/Android mobile game DC Legends (2016) includes a gear piece for Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) called “Set of Batarangs” that strongly resemble the shape of Snyderverse batarangs.

The illuminated veins around Superman’s eyes when he uses heat vision has become a staple of the superpower ever since Man of Steel, having seen use in the CW’s DC shows, the Amazon Prime series The Boys (2019-), and Marvel’s Eternals (2021).

Tony S. Daniel was clearly inspired by Michael Wilkinson’s Wonder Woman costume when he redesigned the character’s attire for Wonder Woman: Rebirth (2016). Liam Sharp, who also participated in the design and debuted the outfit in Wonder Woman #1 (2016) by Greg Rucka, confirmed that Rucka wanted to capture the movie costume…

“I misread a really low-res .jpeg from the film, because Greg had said, ‘What do you think of the movie design?’ I said ‘I love it,’ and he said, ‘So do I, let’s do that!’ so I said, ‘Great!’ so then I looked online and found this full figure, but I zoomed right in on the tiara, and it looked to me like an eagle, and so I drew an eagle and nobody told me not to.”

Liam Sharpe, DC Daily, Episode #80, “Secret Origins with Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp,” 3 January 2019

On 29 October 2016, American media personality Scott Disick wore a Batman v Superman Superman shirt while hosting the American Psycho Halloween Soiree at 1OAK Nightclub in Las Vegas.

Captain America: Civil War (2016) was greenlit in response to the announcement of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice because Kevin Feige was afraid of losing the audience to DC if they didn’t do something “challenging.”

“For our part, when we finished Winter Soldier two years ago and we were thinking about doing the next one, the only thing that seemed interesting to us was to deconstruct the Marvel Universe — because where else can we go at this point? There have been 11 or 12 movies so far, all with a fairly traditional structure. Our pitch to them was: People will tell you they love chocolate ice cream — until you give it to them five days a week. It’s time to give them some rainbow sherbet. Kevin [Feige] is a maverick and he’s very sensitive to how people are responding to his content. He said he thought we might be right. And after they announced Batman v Superman, he said, ‘You guys are absolutely right.’ We needed to do something challenging with the material or we were going to start to lose the audience.”

Joe Russo, Hollywood Reporter, 22 April 2016

The Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D (2016) attraction very directly reproduces multiple exact shots and flight choreography from Superman’s first flight in Man of Steel.

The “White Portuguese” ship shows up in All-Star Batman #14 (2016), written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque.

If it wasn’t already obvious, Joëlle Jones confirmed that Knightmare Batman’s outfit was used in Batman #33 (2017), written by Tom King and illustrated by Jones.

Jon Kent is watching Batman v Superman on television in Super Sons #6 (2017), written by Peter Tomasi and illustrated by Jorge Jiménez.

The Kryptonite spear from Batman v Superman appears accurately in Batman: The Devastator #1 (2017), written by Frank Tieri and James Tynion IV, and illustrated by Tony S. Daniel.

The character Faora Hu-Ul is sporting Faora-Ul’s her Man of Steel garb in DC Comics Bombshells #30 “Winter is Coming” (2017), written by Marguerite Bennett and illustrated by Carmen Carnero, Aneke, and Richard Ortiz.

In The LEGO Batman Movie (2017), news footage of Superman fighting General Zod can be seen, courtesy of “Z. Snyder” and “A. Mokri,” referencing Zack Snyder and Man of Steel director of photography Amir Mokri.

Detective Comics #988 “Deface the Face Part One: A Solitary Man” (2018), written by James Robinson and illustrated by Stephen Segovia, includes a page filled with Batman’s various Batmobiles throughout the years, including a glimpse of the Batman v Superman Batmobile.

Black Panther (2018) costume designer Ruth Carter took inspiration from Michael Wilkinson’s Superman costume in Man of Steel when designing Black Panther’s new outfit, saying, “When I observed Superman’s suit and his texture, I could actually see the musculature underneath was silver. I thought this is fabulous for the Black Panther.”

Snyderverse Batarangs appear in Batman #62 (2019), written by Tom King and illustrated by Mitch Gerads.

Very apparent references to Superman’s first flight from Man of Steel can be seen in Justice League #20 (2019), written by Scott Snyder and Jorge Jimenez, illustrated by Jimenez.

Aquaman adopted tattoos reminiscent of Jason Momoa’s incarnation in Aquaman #47 (2019), written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and illustrated by Robson Rocha.

Tom Taylor originally included the Batman v Superman LexCorp logo in the Superman: Son of Kal-El annual (2021).

Lee Toland Krieger, the director of the first two episodes of Superman & Lois (2021) and a producer on the show, confirmed a direct influence from Man of Steel, referencing both the film’s “intimate moments” and the unique take on Superman’s costume.

“I admit, I’m a fan of Man of Steel, more than maybe most people. I think if you go back and watch that movie now, a lot of it holds up really beautifully. I think the third act of that movie maybe falls victim to what a lot of giant tentpole movies fall victim to, which is kind of the ‘Okay, now the world is being destroyed and we have to save the whole planet from imminent destruction,’ and that’s always just a tough place to go and make it still feel intimate. But the intimate moments of that movie I think are really beautiful. We certainly looked at, in particular, the [movie’s] suit. The suit, obviously, is a great looking suit, despite people thinking it was somewhat heretical to lose the underpants. I think now it sort of seems like the gold standard. Certainly the cape action, a lot of the practical cape and the [digitally-rendered version of the] cape work was something I don’t I fully appreciated until we were in the weeds on it, but is really wonderful and lends itself to some of those more heroic moments.”

Lee Toland Krieger, Entertainment Weekly, 22 February 2021

Jerad Marantz’ Steppenwolf design for Zack Snyder’s Justice League appears in The Monkey Prince #0 (2021), written by Gene Luen Yang and illustrated by Bernard Chang.

Netflix directly referenced the museum gala scene with Bruce and Diana in their film Red Notice (2021).

Chloe Zhao, the director of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals (2021), confirmed that Man of Steel was an inspiration due to approaching the Superman mythology in an “authentic and very real way.”

“You said it, not me! Superman is the Übermensch, the ultimate man, the superman, a concept that exists in all cultures. Of all modern interpretations of Superman, this is Zack Snyder’s with Man Of Steel which inspired me the most because he approached this myth in an authentic and very real way. I remember thinking it was Superman by Terrence Malick when I saw the trailer. This film left a strong impression on me. But Ikaris is, of course, our own take on Superman.”

Chloe Zhao, FilmsActu, 3 November 2021

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-2021) in season 8 episode 3 “Blue Flu” (19 August 2021) directly mentioned the Snyder Cut, wherein Jake and Raymond debate the definition of a trident.

Korean comic artist Yongje Park was inspired by the fight scenes in Man of Steel for his work, whose action scenes he called “the best out of the recent superhero movies.”

In the 2022 Olympics, Russian figure skater Alexandra Trusova skated to Rose Betts’ “Song to the Siren” and Tom Holkenborg’s rendition of Wonder Woman’s theme song, both heard in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Those who pay attention to costume design will notice that cover artist Irvin Rodriguez drew one of Ben Affleck’s Batman cowls on the cover for Detective Comics #1054 (2022), written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Max Raynor.

Deathstroke never had a mohawk in the comics until Dark Crisis #1 (2022), written by Joshua Williamson and illustrated by Daniel Sampere — set in a dystopian alternate timeline where the Justice League have been killed — published the year after Zack Snyder’s Justice League. These are very clear parallels to the Knightmare future seen in Snyder’s film, wherein Deathstroke sports a mohawk.

In the fighting game Multiversus (2022), one of Batman’s voice lines towards Shaggy is, “Tell me, do you bleed?” Wonder Woman also has the line, “Oh, I don’t think you’ve ever met a woman like me.” Both are lines taken directly from Batman v Superman.

Harley Quinn (2019-) season 2 episode 5 “Batman’s Back, Man” (2020) includes an overweight nerd in a basement wearing a shirt with the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut hashtag. The positive response from Snyder fans who took the episode as playful was even acknowledged by the show’s writer and executive producer Justin Halpern, who tweeted, “You folks are very good sports.” Halpern and co-showrunner Patrick Schumacker answered questions about the scene in a live Q&A on the DC Universe forums…

“The goal of that opening was to poke fun at fandoms in general, and how even some of the people who seem to be the most toxic still watch the stuff they say they hate. So it was more of a poke at that. And you know what? It wasn’t laser directed at the Snyder Cut folks, but the Snyder Cut fan base had a great reaction. They took it as a joke and seemed to really enjoy it, and I think that says a lot about them. Kudos to them.”

Justin Halpern, DC Universe Live Q&A, 11 May 2020

“And I don’t think he’s representative of all the Snyder Cut enthusiasts at all. In truth, I had cold feet about keeping the shirts but I’m glad we did at the end of the day, and the Snyder Cut fans’ response has been outstanding. Such great sports! … On my island in Animal Crossing, I have a custom sign that reads ‘RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT’ that you can see when you fly in. I’m for it. I’m a completist who wants to see it released. I want all director cuts to be released.”

Patrick Schumacker, DC Universe Live Q&A, 11 May 2020

The Simpsons (1989) season 32 episode 15 “Do PizzaBots Dream of Electric Guitars?” (2021) included a protester in a “designated troll protest zone” holding a sign that read “Un-Release The Snyder Cut.” Snyder noticed this gag and posted it on Vero.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) references Batman v Superman with a parody film titled Batman v ET which depicts Batman in the Snyder film’s armoured suit. Zack Snyder’s friend Larry Fong, who served as director of photography on both films, confirmed the idea didn’t come from him, but from visualization supervisor Tefft Smith, who included it as a joke in his previsualisation that was ultimately kept. The movie’s end credits scene also includes a shot heavily reminiscent of Zack Snyder’s opening credits sequence for Watchmen (2009).

Rick and Morty (2013-) season 8 episode 2 “Rick: A Mort Well Lived” (2022) directly referenced the Snyder Cut in the line, “8% of the Snyder Cut was Batman dreaming.” Though Batman doesn’t actually dream at any point in the film, the real runtime of the Knightmare scene constitutes 2.8% of the movie.

Teen Titans Go! (2013-) season 7 episode 42 “365” (2022) has Zack Snyder voice his animated counterpart in an episode brimming with references to his films.

Viral marketing for The Boys (2019-) season 3 (2022) included a trailer for the “Bourke Cut” of the fictional film Dawn of the Seven, plus a video of the fictional director thanking his dedicated fans for their campaigning — a clear reference to the Snyder Cut movement.

The Man of Steel Superman emblem was used in Shaquille O’ Neal’s music video for his “Bodies Freestyle” (2023) music video.

In Harley Quinn (2019-) season 3 episode 11 “A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special” (2023), Harley Quinn dresses in Amazon garb and goes to Diana Prince’s apartment to convince her that Themyscira has been attacked, to which Diana at one point asks, “Why didn’t you light a signal fire to alert me?” The concept of the Amazons using a signal fire to alert Wonder Woman comes from Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

The DC film Blue Beetle (2023) contains references to Man of Steel, as confirmed by the film’s director, Angel Manuel Soto…

“Waking up in Mexico to the news that Snyder wants to see it too. A director that I respect so much, that his films are an immense influence. Even in Blue Beetle, there are some references to Man of Steel that we made out of honour and respect for the work and art of Zack Snyder.”

Angel Manuel Soto, Nestor Cine desde Hollywood – Nestor Bentancor, 9 August 2023

Artist Dan Mora drew Batgirl holding Snyderverse Batarangs on his variant cover of Tim Drake: Robin #6 (2023), written by Meghan Fitzmartin.

In Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024), one of Harley Quinn’s possible melee weapons includes the “Knight Knight,” a baseball bat affixed with Snyderverse Batarangs.

Illustrator Andrea Sorrentino, who has long used image manipulation and photo references in his artwork, clearly used Ben Affleck’s Batman as a reference on at least one page of Batman #142 (2024), written by Chip Zdarsky and illustrated by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Sorrentino.

Executive producer, creator, and head writer of X-Men ’97 (2024) Beau DeMayo confirmed that a sequence of Storm flying (episode 6), a sequence of Sebastion breaking down in school (episode 8), and another sequence of Rogue punching Bastion (2010) are all inspired by scenes from Man of Steel,

A segment of the Amazonian lamentation from 5:08 in the track “World Ending Fire” from the score for Zack Snyder’s Justice League was played during a performance by Brazilian gymnast Júlia Soares during the 2024 Brazil Trophy gymnastics competition in June that year.

Director James Gunn confirmed that, among other things, Zack Snyder’s DC films were an influence on Superman (2025), saying, “Zack did some excellent stuff.” He later said in a Q&A, “Zack Snyder did a lot of amazing things with action, and I took a lot of stuff from that, and already have before then.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) features Galactus descending from above and grabbing a chunk of earth in his hand to smell it, reminiscent of Darkseid’s arrival in the history lesson flashback in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

The thumbnail for the Bal Hanuman (2026) trailer features a shot reminiscent of Superman’s ascent into space from Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

The Auburn University Marching Band plays the Man of Steel theme song during football matches.

For Superman Day, DC comic book illustrator Fico Ossio drew this piece based on Absolute Superman referencing the iconic full reveal of Zack Snyder’s Superman against the dented vault door.