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When it comes to the DC Universe on film, few people have been more influential than David Goyer. The screenwriter wrote the script for Batman Begins, and helped write the story treatment for its sequels The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Goyer also wrote the script for The Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. So yes, he’s a pretty big deal.

While Goyer isn’t involved in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Universe, he’s looking forward to it as an audience member.  “I’ve not seen the film for the new Superman film, but I love [the trailers], and it’s not Man of Steel at all,” Goyer says during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast. Because I came from that world, it would not have occurred to me to use Krypto, but when Krypto shows up, I’ve just got a big grin on my face.”

Goyer believes that Hollywood learned the wrong lessons by trying to copy the tone he and Chris Nolan created with The Dark Knight trilogy. Goyer notes that audiences change their taste, and while a gritty superhero film might work one year, filmgoers will want something different a few years later.

“The wrong lesson is you can’t chase the fad. Because by the time you get a movie made, it’ll be three or five years from now, and the conditions that the world is in could be completely different. Hollywood is always reactive in that way. Oh, now everything is going to be the Batman Begins version of something. Or with The Dark Knight, it’s going to be The Dark Knight, but we’re going to make The Even Darker Knight.”

“Which is why it will be interesting now to see the Gunn version of Batman come out, which will probably be a very different version, and probably a welcome version, because now there’s been 20 years of really dark Batman.”

Superman hits theaters on July 11.

James Gunn's Superman movie is out now - and we have a lot to say about it. You can also read about Superman's S-Shield through the ages, how Superman and Clark Kent keep their secret identity secret, our recs for best Superman comics, and how to watch all his TV series and movies in order.