Zack Snyder is eyeing a “300” TV series with a subversive twist.
The “Rebel Moon” director revealed during an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast (in the below video) that following his 2007 film and its subsequent 2014 sequel “300: Rise of an Empire,” he wants to explore the historic cinematic universe by way of an episodic structure.
“All my movies are just a little bit weird, in a good way. ‘300,’ for all the like coolness of it as far as like ‘Yeah, let’s go fight,’ it’s still a weirdo movie,” Snyder said.
Podcast host Rogan asked the filmmaker, “Did you ever think about putting a bunch of gay stuff in there?” to which Snyder pointed to Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s comic book that he adapted for “300.”
“It’s Frank’s book. I made what Frank wrote. And we’ve been talking about doing a series where I really wanted to introduce those concepts a lot more because I just feel like it’s important,” Snyder said. “If we go forward and do more in the ‘300’ universe, I would want to bring that part in. I think it just shakes it up again. Like, ‘What?!’ Right when you thought you knew how to feel, I’m going to make you feel another way.”
Snyder reflected on the legacy of the Gerard Butler-led movies and cited that perhaps “300” is one of the “gayest movies” ever made in cinema history.
“People have accused me of being homophobic or whatever. There’s that one line where he says, ‘Philosophers and boy lovers,’ but I think that he’s clearly being cheeky, Leonidas. I of course was hyper-aware at the time that the reality of Spartan culture was like, obviously he means philosophies and boy lovers…he’s using that maybe as a derogatory comment but he’s a lover of men, probably,” Snyder said.
The filmmaker added, “As we go forward, I would love to just kind of stress…Look, ‘300’ in some ways is one of the gayest movies ever made. It is incredibly male-centric, male-obsessed. You really feel very strong male energy from that movie, even though Gorgo is an incredibly strong female character. Maybe that was just me understanding, doing the research and understanding Spartan culture that that energy was in there. It was important to make sure there was a visceral sexuality to the way the men actually interacted. Regardless of whether you acknowledge it, it’s there.”
Snyder shared in 2021 that he planned to write a script for a third “300” movie for Warner Bros. but ended up penning a queer romance project that Warner Bros. passed on.
“I just couldn’t really get my teeth into it. Over the pandemic, I had a deal with Warner Bros. and I wrote what was essentially going to be the final chapter in ‘300.’ But when I sat down to write it I actually wrote a different movie. I was writing this thing about Alexander the Great, and it just turned into a movie about the relationship between Hephaestion and Alexander. It turned out to be a love story. So it really didn’t fit in as the third movie,” Snyder said, adding, “There was that concept, and it came out really great. It’s called ‘Blood and Ashes,’ and it’s a beautiful love story, really, with warfare. I would love to do it, [Warner Bros.] said no…you know, they’re not huge fans of mine. It is what it is.”
