'Man of Steel' was meant to be "chapter 1" of a five part story

April 22, 2018

Jay Oliva has directed many animated DC movies, but he's also worked as a storyboard artist on many of the DCEU movies including Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League. A lot of fans have been clamoring for a Man of Steel sequel and Oliva took to Twitter last night to share what the original plan was.

"Man of Steel was never meant to have a sequel because it was supposed to be chapter 1 of a 5 chapter story," Oliva explained. "Notice how [Batman v Superman] follows exactly after [Man of Steel]? It’s like book two of Harry Potter."

Man of Steel was never meant to have a sequel because it was supposed to be chapter 1 of a 5 chapter story. Notice how BvS follows exactly after MoS? Itâ€™s like book two of Harry Potter.
— Jay Oliva (@jayoliva1) April 22, 2018

Oliva went on to confirm that the original five movies that were planned for Superman were:

Man of Steel
Batman v Superman
Justice League 1
Justice League 2
???

Oliva wouldn't reveal the fifth and final movie, so feel free to speculate what you think it may have been in the comments below. Perhaps another solo Superman movie to wrap up his story?

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403 comments

NinjaGamer13
April 22, 2018
Long term plans make for so much better storytelling than simple, formulaic, serialized stories with little hints for sequels. I really enjoyed the one long story concept going on with the DCEU, rather than the superhero of the week feel of the MCU.
NinjaGamer13
April 22, 2018
No, there was most definitely planning involved. It simply was influenced by reactionary and meddling WB execs.
1. Nightwing Fan J
  April 22, 2018
  It's a whole thread.
  https://twitter.com/jayoliv...
BatfleckRules
April 22, 2018
I believe both options were circulating at the time. I believe they had discussions and ideas to do a Man of Steel trilogy and I believe they had discussions to turn Man of Steel into the launch pad for the DCEU.
I don’t believe the idea to bring in Batman to save the day was only thought up after MOS’ mixed reaction. There were rumours back when the Dark Knight Rises hadn’t even released yet about WB looking for JL directors and I they had even had talks with Ben Affleck about some involvement in future DC films.
As soon as WB found out that Nolan was wrapping up The Dark Knight Trilogy you can bet your ass they were already planning on how to reintroduce a new Batman and they knew the next one was likely going to be apart of Justice League movies.
But WB had wanted to do a Batman/Superman film for years there’s no way the idea was only thought of after MoS’ mixed reception as this Jay guy has now confirmed.
1. Seb
  April 22, 2018
  I think you're right. I think Zack planned to do a solo Superman trilogy back in 2011 when they were shooting... But with the success of Avengers, and Zack's desire to do Frank Miller stuff (because let's face it, Zack would much rather do Batman than Superman, and him saying that Superman is supposedly his favorite hero is pure bs), those plans changed the moment Zack had the idea to introduce Batman into the sequel. And without a doubt, WB loved that idea, and they used MoS as the starting point for a connected DC movie universe, which started development late 2012, early 2013. It's the most consistent narrative with every piece of evidence we have.
2. Axxell
  May 1, 2018
  The idea came from the Avengers' massive success, not because of MoS' reception. You can even see in the movie itself that they tried to tease the existence of Batman through a couple of easter eggs in post production. I've always said that by the time MoS released in theaters, WB had already made up their mind to change course and build a cinematic universe around the world of MoS.
Rambowl
April 22, 2018
If it was supposed to be a 5 part story, they should have had Superman vs Doomsday in Part 5 where Superman dies, not in Part 2.
1. Myron Kapetanakis
  April 22, 2018
  As I understand the whole 5-chapter story, it was supposed to be a story of Justice League not just Superman. But again, even if it was true, it was scraped very early after BvS.
HAPPYQWERTY
April 22, 2018
Who said it was the executives? That's just you assuming things. The fact of the matter is, BvS was already a thing long before MoS underperformed, which was the sole reason (supposedly) as to why WB wanted Batman to be in the sequel anyways. Again, for the last time, this article refutes that narrative
Nightwing Fan J
April 22, 2018
Now it's just shoulda, coulda, woulda. Lets just move on and look forward to Aquaman, Shazam!, and Wonder Woman 2.
K_Man399
April 22, 2018
Good lord...
Mr. ComicBook
April 22, 2018
"Originally, I think there was a number of Superman movies. But I think they made the
decision to jump past those and go to the idea of Batman and Superman
in the same film." - Russell Crowe
jrvc
April 22, 2018
So many arguments here, and I'm just thinking how could would be if someone released what those 5 movies were about...
It would be an interesting reading for sure
Bob Burger
April 22, 2018
And they killed Supe's in the 2nd "book" of a 5, "book" story hahahaha. Get your shit together.
Thiago Nunez Da Concepçao
April 22, 2018
Flashpoint, 5 movie. Final chapter.
residentgrigo
April 22, 2018
I wonder if these films could have stood on their own if Snyder got the chance to reach act 3. MoS and the current version of JLA do but BvS is one of the most unapproachable Hollywood films i ever saw from a casual moviegoer perspective. It´s a shame that these films got burdened by their astronomical budgets and WB´s aspirations to stand toe to toe with Disney.
Jay Oliva is also the best. He directed the best DC film of all time with DKR after all. I wonder if it will ever be bested...
nat
April 22, 2018
well that was a load of bollocks then.
DudeofSteel1Million
April 22, 2018
Anyone see the rest of Jay Oliva's twitter posts in relation to this article?
He went berserk on a DCEU "hater", who ended up blocking him in response.
Saiyan Soul
April 22, 2018
If only It was a real thing and not rushed, would've loved watching it.
Ah well, I'm glad I atleast have MoS if anything.
J.K.2019
April 22, 2018
Of-curse, The hack never cared about Superman and wanted to get his hands on Batman.Screw him.
Nahuel Benvenuto
April 22, 2018
No shit sherlock, you can thank wb fot that
Myron Kapetanakis
April 22, 2018
It seems they did have a plan, but they abandoned it very early and very fast, after BvS.
Guest
April 23, 2018
Nah, that's BS. They didn't plan all this when making MoS. They making it up as they went along. Really should have had a plan from the start. I thought MoS was a great movie, BvS was a let down, and JL was just laughable. Should have had better editors, less executive meddling, should have stuck to the plan.
1. Martin Phipps
  April 23, 2018
  Pretty much.
Light PK
April 23, 2018
After JL flop, if MoS sequal was made it will have completely different storyline.
Benito Mussolini
April 23, 2018
Christ, Bob Chipman was right. The WB was using the potential of a franchise to sell audiences on more movies rather than using movies to sell audiences on the potential of a franchise.
r
April 23, 2018
it will be the flash point movie
kan
April 23, 2018
Nope, glad he was fired. https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
1. Kouglof
  April 23, 2018
  Odin has just reject his son in Thor 1, don't pretend it was "good parenting", maybe for ASSgardians yes.
  https://pics.esmemes.com/lo...
  1. kan
    April 23, 2018
    Nice try, but huge fail. Odin banished Thor without his powers to teach him a lesson, and it worked. Thor came back to save Odin and his people from the frost giants.
    Snyder's drivel with Pa Kent teaching Clark not to use his powers resulted in Clark letting his dad get swept away like a Hoover vacuum cleaner, and ultimately chose not to save him. Snyder and Goyer gave us the worst parenting skills...EVER. LOL
    https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
    1. FUN
      April 25, 2018
      Yup, the DCEU should've gone for lighter stories.
AnonymousHero
April 23, 2018
Always understood that. The only reason folks should be referring it as MOS2 is because it's the only name given that continues a solo Superman story. But it is blatantly obvious that Man of Steel's true sequel is clearly BvS. It's not like we're going to all of a sudden pretend like BvS and Justice League didn't happen and Clark hasn't done anything. I thought this crap was obvious to people.
Mustafa Sabree
April 23, 2018
THE MAN OF STEEL as Chapter 1 in a series of movies was a dumb idea from the start. The decision makers at the DCEU are just proving to their detractors just how inept they are.
A Man with vision, intelligence and courage is what is needed to turn things around at the film-making arm of DC, but short-sightedness, arrogance and a trying-to-please-all-of-the-people-all-of-the-time mind-set is what the company has chosen to stick with. Things are going to get worse before they get better in the DCEU and that is a tragedy for both the company and it's loyal fans.
If a layman like myself can see what needs to be done to move the DCEU forward and those people entrenched in the day-to-day process cannot; what hope is there for the future.
Alfonso Eme
April 24, 2018
I've read you all along this year (I didn't knew this site before that) and i'm a huge fan of your discussions. That being said when I first read this post and the five movies topic kinda felt strange to me, as fan of the (most of) DC movies, nobody remembered somenthing that was leaked from one the WB events... that BvS originally was meant to be a two parts story... (I: Enter the night and II: Dawn of Justice). Yo https://uploads.disquscdn.c... u can find a ton of photoshoped pictures after the original went out. That, I think, would have settled things a lil more for a clash between Bats and Supes and powered more the thriller part of Lex's conspiracy, and of course the death os Superman would have been more powerful in a third movie instead of a second. That I think was going to mean with the five movies arch:
Man of Steel
Enter the night
Dawn of Justice
JL I
JLII
PS: All that speculation being made I respect very much most of your opinions (pro and con) but even so I loooooved the UC of BvS. I guess is something of a lottery that in theater the emotional part of story and characters won the chaotic narrative parts of the movie (and I will not defend Snyder in that matter because I needed a second MoS view to really dig it and enjoy it). For me it was a huge win, and I guess i´m lucky. I am a strange case cause months after that I went to enjoy Civil War (after the huge surprise that was Winter Soldier) and it felt too similar to BvS (the pictures of the dead relatives, the bombing to the political building that fuels the violent escalade...) but without the will of getting full dark as promised by the marketing (and achieved, for me, in BvS). For me BvS represents, and very realistically the kind of world we have today... the extremely polarized world that not only would get Superman out of will of saving people but even a suicide Superman. In a world that is constantly judging and bashing every public figure and act... Who the fuck wouldn't think that? For me MoS and BvS were surprising, risky, and even with a lot of cuestionable chioces, felt "authentic". Something almost unique in the superheroes genre.
1. FUN
  April 25, 2018
  Are you trying to get yourself called a snyderbot by the marveltrolls lurking these comment sections?
  1. Alfonso Eme
    April 25, 2018
    They can do as they please... I'm not trying to convince anybody of my (obviously) subjective opinion on those two films, but i thought the Enter the night and Dawn of Justice part was out of the discussion and I didn't understand why nobody remembers that
2. Myron Kapetanakis
  April 26, 2018
  I also believe that the a 2-part version of BvS: Dawn of Justice would work much better. Imagine the full story unfolding in two movies. The first focusing on Superman and Batman, only without anything else, and the second part with Superman/Batman/Wonder woman against Doomsday. Why they didn't do that??
  1. Alfonso Eme
    April 27, 2018
    Yep, I often gave it some thought about how to materialize that... I guess that Enter the night would have set up pretty well the first part of BvS and some of the "batground" with the dead robin, Jokers story and that. A more Gothamish story, more of a thriller if you may call it that. But my doubts are more focused in how the hell do you finish that story? How do you coronate it? With the capitol scene? With the BvS fight? Maybe that could have settled better the Martha scene and let it dig it in the spectators as well that in Bats. Maybe... My fear would be these two films cuold feel kinda empty. Thats exactly my problem with most Marvel movies but they also could achieve something in the middle, like WW, Winter Soldier or Civil War, very well balanced movies.
    If you ask me I would love to see even 4 the hour version of MoS xD In the "who is to blame" subject I will say the obvious: everybody. If Zach had a problem comprising all that shouldnt let WB but my feel was he was aboard all along. WB just was full "Get to JL NOW" mode and Zach just thought it would be even better to put so much elements in every film. And that was a big problem for a majority of viewers. Im also convinced that the standards are always gonna be higher for DC.
    1. Myron Kapetanakis
      April 27, 2018
      In my mind the first part would end just after the warehouse fight scene. I mean what else can you ask from a movie? You have the Batman/Superman fight, you have Batman changing his mind and returning to saving people.
      Then you can have Superman going to the scout ship to capture Lex, but this time he has already left. For me it would be great if they have Superman in the deleted Steppenwolf scene instead of Lex. But this time he sees Doomsday instead, so you tease the part II.
      To the blame game, I agree. Both parties (Snyder, WB) are responsible. To me it seems that they push each other to the wrong direction.
    2. Axxell
      May 1, 2018
      I think DC sets their own standards, and in the process sets themselves to fail. If you're gonna tell me that men dressed in tights and capes is Shakespeare...then you better damn deliver.
Frank
April 25, 2018
A fifth and solo movie would be nice.
Aheaney15
April 25, 2018
A late response, but it may be a likely possibility that the DCEU was originally supposed to be a series of several of these "five chapter" stories for a few of the characters (excluding cameos).
Superman: MoS, BvS, JL, JL2, and solo movie
Batman: BvS, JL, JL2, The Batman, and possibly Nightwing?
Wonder Woman: BvS, WW, JL, WW2, JL2
Harley and Joker: SS, SS2, Gotham City Sirens (which is now Birds of Prey I guess), The Batman, and The Joker vs Harley Quinn movie (which I hope gets cancelled)
Shazam and Black Adam: Shazam, Black Adam, Man of Steel 2, Shazam 2 (?) and JL2 (?)
All other characters (Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, GL, etc) would have had at least one solo movie and appear in team-up movies as well.
Not sure where New Gods and other solo films fit though.