Snyder reveals his holy grail: Miller's The Dark Knight

Zack Snyder still has a comic book in his throat. And it’s not a sequel.

In Happy Sad Confused, a podcast by journalist Josh Horowitz, in a conversation recorded at the Toronto Film Festival and published on September 17, 2026, the topic was rest. In his last visits to the program, the director had said that he needed some time away from superheroes after everything he had experienced at DC. Josh asked how he is today. The answer started with “a little while still” and ended with a title: The Dark Knight Returns.

For those who don’t know, it’s the miniseries that Frank Miller launched in 1986, with a 55-year-old Bruce Wayne taking on the mantle again in a rotten Gotham. It is one of the most influential comics ever published, and anyone who has seen Batman v Superman knows parts of it without knowing it. The armor, the fight in the rain, entire frames came out of those pages.

Snyder called the adaptation a holy grail for him, and explained it with a collector’s logic. He’s already filmed Watchmen, the other genre-changing 1986 comic. Doing both would be closing the pair that defines American adult comics.

It’d be hard to call [BS] on me after that.

Zack Snyder on Happy Sad Confused, 09/17/2026, at 41:15

Now, calm down. This is a declared will, not an announced project. There is no agreement with Warner or DC Studios, and he himself spoke as if he knows he has already sparked this conversation other times. Around here, the rumor of a Dark Knight with Snyder continues with a rumor seal.

But there is one detail that cheers you up. In September 2026, with an independent film at a festival, a remake of Escape from New York in line and the 300 Walking series, the man could have stopped talking. He didn’t change the conversation. He said the name of the comic, said why he wants it, and left it up in the air. Those who are far from a universe don’t talk like that.

As a bonus, he talked about what he’s been reading: Dead Samurai, zombies in feudal Japan. Anyone who saw Madrugada dos Mortos and Army of the Dead understands right away.