Zack Snyder says Batman & Superman are "shakespearean characters"

Zack Snyder is the latest to respond to Steven Spielberg’s prediction of the downfall of superhero movies, and unsurprisingly, he’s quick to defend the genre. In fact, he’s even gone as far as to compare his titular players to characters in a Shakespeare play.

“He might not be wrong,” said Synder to Yahoo!, when the Spielberg position was put to him. “I think it puts more pressure on us, the filmmakers, to not just crank out superhero movies for the sake of it. To me, the one thing I love working in the DC universe is that Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman are American mythology. It’s not about making a superhero, it’s a mythological universe that we live in… To me it’s about the drama, the humanity of it. Those are like Shakespearean characters, Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, they have inherent drama built into their makeup.”

“I try and stay central,” continues Snyder, when asked about the temptation to cram in more and more supporting players from the DC universe. “There’s something really fun about bringing the other characters in, but it’s really about staying central to the real core mythology is what I think the audience enjoys most.” Co-starring Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, Batman v Superman will open in the UK and US on March 25 2016.

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George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.