Watching the trailers, reading the interviews, there’s no doubt that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is going to be a dark movie. Both literally dark, as lots of it takes place at night, and tonally dark, in that it will deal with some deep issues. But the film’s writer says things aren’t going to stay that way.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, writer Chris Terrio talked about the differences in the films. Terrio, the Oscar-winning writer of Argo, wrote the latest draft of Batman v Superman as well as Justice League Part One and said the following about the films.
“I expect Justice League will be tonally not quite as dark as Batman v Superman,” Terrio said. “From that point of view, I felt compelled to go back and try to lift us and myself into a different tonal place because I think when you write a darker film, sometimes you want to redeem it all a bit.”
The writer also refers to Batman v Superman as the “Empire Strikes Back” of a series of films that started with Man of Steel and will end with Justice League Part One. “The middle film tends to be the darkest one.” he said. “I do think from Man of Steel through Justice League, it is one saga really.”
Oddly though, Terrio said that while he wrote Part One of the two-part Justice League movie, he may not come back for the second. “I have written Justice League Part One, but I won’t necessarily write Part Two,” he said. “This has been the most rigorous intellectual exercise I’ve had in my writing life.”
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens March 24. Justice League Part One starts shooting soon, and is aimed for a release on 17 November 2017.