Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice editor, David Brenner, has revealed that the first cut of Zack Snyder's film was around four hours long.

In an interview with Pro Video Coalition, Brenner said that a version with "absolutely everything" was "a nearly four hour cut".

Brenner puts that down to the sheer number of storylines that need to be accounted for, particularly in the early section of the film:

"Generally, BvS was a unique challenge in that we had not one but two protagonists, each with an alter-ego. So there was Clark Kent, Superman, Bruce Wayne and Batman. And then surrounding them are Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Wallace Keefe, Perry White, Martha Kent, Holly Hunter’s character (Senator Finch), and still more characters orbiting them."

Brenner explains that the three-hour R-rated extended cut puts "a lot of this stuff back [...] once all these added storylines were refined with the fat cut out."


BvS suffered the largest Friday-to-Friday drop ever for a major comic-inspired film release, but seems to have convinced Warner Bros. execs that Batfleck is the way forward - at least going by the fact that Ben Affleck will direct and star in a solo Batman movie.