With the release of Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice now mere days away, writer Chris Terrio has been out on the interview circuit. And he has good news for anyone concerned that the DC movie universe was skewing rather dour. Justice League - Part One, which he's also written, will be a bit lighter.
"Batman V Superman is a bit of an Empire Strikes Back or Two Towers or any similar middle film in a trilogy," Terrio tells The Wall Street Journal. "The middle film tends to be the darkest one. I do think from Man Of Steel through Justice League, it is one saga really. I expect Justice League will be tonally not quite as dark as Batman V Superman. From that point of view, I felt compelled to go back and try to lift us and myself into a different tonal place because I think when you write a darker film, sometimes you want to redeem it all a bit."
Having won an Oscar for writing Ben Affleck's Argo, Terrio says he's surprised to find himself now writing superhero films, but he's approaching them with an impressive intellectual rigour. As far as the comics go, he namechecks Frank Miller and Grant Morrison. But his reading is wider than just the nailed-on Bat-classics.
"For Batman V Superman I wanted to really dig into everything from ideas about American power to the structure of revenge tragedies to the huge canon of DC Comics to Amazon mythology," he explains. "For Justice League I could be reading in the same day about red-and blueshifts in physics, Diodorus of Sicily and his account of the war between Amazons and Atlanteans, or deep-sea biology and what kind of life plausibly might be in the Mariana Trench." At this point he may be superheroed out, however: he says he won't necessarily continue to Justice League - Part Two.
The specific Amazons and Atlanteans on his current radar are, of course, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, and of the former, Terrio also shared his thoughts on not giving her an origin story, per se.
"I thought it would be better if we met her as a civilian first and involved her in the plot in a way that felt like a thriller," he muses. "She’s a mysterious woman interested in the same things Bruce Wayne is. The fun of it is if you don’t immediately reveal her in superhero guise, you get to revel in the moment when she finally does reveal herself. If you bring in a character in a kinetic way, then you accept the reality more easily."
For much more, including Terrio's thoughts on Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, head over to The Wall Street Journal for the rest of the interview.
Between Dawn Of Justice and Justice League there are, of course other movies. David Ayer's Suicide Squad has its moment on August 5, then Patty Jenkins' stand-alone Wonder Woman - possibly a prequel giving us that origin story after all - arrives on June 23 next year. Zack Snyder's Justice League – Part 1 is set to start shooting next month and is currently targeting a November 17, 2017 release. James Wan's Aquaman is due on July 27, 2018. And Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice is out in less than two weeks on March 25. Everything you need to know is here.