Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel has taken in over 600 million internationally and helped to re-position the Superman franchise after the previous entry Superman Returns received lukewarm response and sent the titular man of steel on a seven-year hiatus from multiplexes, and in the wake of this success Snyder has revealed a crossover morsel for the scheduled sequel.

While Marvel’s competing Avengers universe helped to establish the possibility of superheroes coexisting within the same universe and even inside of one another’s movies, DC comics own platform as remained exclusive to each franchise, making news of any crossover a juicy treat for the fan community. Superman is arguably the world’s most recognizable superhero next to Batman, so it’s with no small amount of excitement that Zack Snyder confirms Bruce Wayne for a major role in the Man of Steel sequel.

Snyder has a projected release date of 2015 and inspiration in the form of the seminal comic book classic ‘The Dark Knight Returns’, in which an aged Batman comes out of retirement to fight a corrupted world, including a climactic battle against Superman in the second part of the story. Although Superman plays a relatively minor role in ‘Returns’ – which also served as partial inspiration for the retirement plot line of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Rises, Snyder has made sure to clarify that ‘Returns’ is being used as a template but not a source for direct adaptation.

Christian Bale, who portrayed Bruce Wayne in three Nolan installment, has publicly denied returning as the caped crusader, but it’s anyone’s guess what Snyder and company truly have in store for this Batman versus Superman event. This unprecedented announcement is positioned as the first true DC films crossover, and a pinnacle foundation for the future of the Justice League.

The Justice League

Originally comprised of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Flash, Justice League is actually a precursor to Marvel’s Avengers in comic book canon, and intends to make a comparably similar build up to a similarly epic filmmaking event that puts together some of this culture’s most prominent and famous superheroes in a tent-pole summer release.

Although only Superman, Batman and Green Lantern have seen film adaptions – with Green Lantern’s debut taking in a less than encouraging domestic gross, putting a halt on the sequels and stalling plans for Justice League – the meeting of Superman and Batman on the big screen has been teased for decades, and qualifies as an event film in and of itself. However, the big surprise is not that the two iconic heroes are meeting up and butting heads, but that they are doing so in the Man of Steel sequel, well before any Justice League film.

The Canon

This crossover will be helmed by the Man of Steel team, including director Snyder, writer David S. Goyer and producer Christopher Nolan, who himself directed the successful reinvention of the Batman film franchise after the poorly received Batman and Robin. The tentative schedule for the DC Comics future universe positions the Justice League movie for 2017, a whole two years after Batman and Superman are scheduled to encounter each other for the first time.

Along with returning cast members Laurence Fishburne, Amy Adams, and Diane Lane, Snyder has also teased Superman’s nemesis Lex Luther as being a prominent figure in the sequel; along with his reference to ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ Snyder appears to be eluding to Batman playing an antagonistic role to Henry Cavill’s man of steel.