While his tenure at Warner Bros. as the supervisor of the now-dismantled DCEU was a choppy and controversial one, many fans of comic book films cannot deny Zack Snyder’s influence on this genre of entertainment was monumental during the peak of superhero cinema.
In fact, it wouldn’t be farfetched to say that he was a visionary who took risks, even if they didn’t pay off all too well.
But when it comes to inspiring his peers in the industry, he did so with amazing intensity. This becomes even more evident as in the past, The Russo Brothers revealed how the release of Batman Vs Superman became an inspiration for them to execute the deconstruction plan of the MCU with Captain America: Civil War.
Zack Snyder Inspired The Russo Brothers To Switch Lanes And Create Captain America: Civil War
While this film is extremely controversial in the eyes of the fans of comic book films, people agree that Zack Snyder took the risk of bringing something new to the genre with Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Pinning good guys against good guys in these films was not something that had been witnessed before on the big screen, and the potential that it had was something that The Russo Brothers understood very well.
Talking with The Hollywood Reporter back in 2016, Joe and Anthony Russo talked about how the concept of Captain America: Civil War came into existence. They revealed that they already had plans to deconstruct the MCU with this storyline that was pitched by Robert Downey Jr. The only thing they were missing was guidance and an example to set them on their path.
This was when Snyder’s controversial film was released in theaters, which inspired them to go ahead with their plan. They said:
“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.”
This decision and a slight push by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was what shaped the future of the MCU to what we see today.
Where Will The MCU Be Heading Next?
It has been almost a decade since the events of the third Captain America film shaped the future of the franchise, and it seems like the fourth is on its way to do the same.
As the first look images of the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World hits the internet, people have started gushing over minor and major details of them. And with the announcements of future projects like Thunderbolts and Deadpool and Wolverine, it seems like we might be heading towards a reconstruction of the franchise with new and old allies teaming up once more, heading towards the end.
Captain America: Civil War, streaming on Disney+.
