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Zack Snyder responds to Batman v Superman 'Martha' scene: 'I am a fan'

"Clearly I am a fan of, and am very interested in how 'Martha,' that concept is central to the film," Snyder said.

Jennifer Bisset Former Senior Editor / Culture
Jennifer Bisset was a senior editor for CNET. She covered film and TV news and reviews. The movie that inspired her to want a career in film is Lost in Translation. She won Best New Journalist in 2019 at the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
Expertise Film and TV Credentials
  • Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Jennifer Bisset
2 min read
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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice pointed out to the heroes their mothers share the same name.

Warner Bros.

Zack Snyder's Justice League has all the attention right now after dropping its second major trailer. In the midst of that, Snyder has responded to a question about one of his earlier DC films, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Yup, the "Martha" moment is up for discussion again.

"Clearly I am a fan of, and am very interested in how 'Martha,' that concept is central to the film," Snyder told YouTube fan channel I Minutemen late last week.

In Batman v Superman, Lex Luthor kidnaps Martha Kent, Clark's adoptive mother. When Batman is about to kill Superman, Superman says, "Save Martha." Batman's, aka Bruce Wayne's, deceased mother's name is Martha Wayne. This makes Batman hesitate and, instead of killing Superman, he promises to rescue Martha.

"I mean, it's 100% the lynchpin that holds the entire movie together," Snyder said. "I think it's indicative of the way that Batman v Superman was received that its central tenet was sort of belittled and made fun of.

"I personally think it is like this beautiful and incredibly symmetrical idea that it completely finishes it as a concept. It all is 100% with intent and intention to be all the images that you see, as far as their inspiration and stuff like that."

Snyder has explained the significance of connecting the two heroes through their mothers a fair few times now, but that hasn't stopped many from lampooning the Martha scene. Batman v Superman disappointed at the box office and did not impress critics.

Here's what Snyder has said previously about working with screenwriter Chris Terrio on how he could stop Batman and Superman from destroying each other.

"It's funny, because we, Chris Terrio and I, we did reach that point in the movie, in our discussions ... we knew how to get them to fight, right? But how do you get them to stop fighting?

"That's a tough one. And we sort of were just throwing down on their humanity and Batman realizes Superman has humanity, he's not just a creature, he's a man -- he's an alien, but he is as human as, in a lot of ways, he's more human than him, right? He's sort of embraced all the good parts of the human race, and so Batman's able to sort of see, in a lot of ways, a thing that he is not. And I think that that was how we started to talk about it."

We'll see how Snyder's four-hour director's cut of Justice League is received when it hits HBO Max mid-March.

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