Dragon Ball Z Movie Coming From A Controversial Director?
Could Dragon Ball Z be in the works from a major director? It was brought up in a recent interview, and he was open to the idea.
Zack Snyder continues to expand his work as a director, taking projects that push some action boundaries while also being open to all kinds of new formats and mediums. It’s what makes his movies so damn entertaining, the ability to not stay confined to one set style or genre. He’s getting more into the anime world now and was even asked if there was a chance he could adapt one of the tentpole franchises from that genre, Dragon Ball Z. In an interview with Tyrone Magnus on YouTube, Snyder was asked about adapting Dragon Ball Z or other popular anime into a feature-length or even live-action movie and he said he was definitely up for it.
In the lengthy interview with Magnus, Zack Snyder describes all kinds of thought processes and production tidbits from his last few movies. And then he’s asked about whether he’d have an appetite for adapting anything in the anime space, specifically Dragon Ball Z. There’s some context for this question considering how much work he’s done putting out movies from the comic book space. Snyder was non-committal about anime adaptations in general, saying he was open to the idea. Then he said, I would do an anime remake or live-action. That would be fun because I love animation, and I watch a ton of anime with my kid who’s too young to watch it but we watch anyway…”
It’s clear Zack Snyder would have some interest in the live-action adaption realm of anime movies and we know that his visual style could definitely lend to a melding of the tenets of anime in a live-action format. His use of special effects and slow-motion could really make a Dragon Ball Z or similar property pop off the screen in a big way. Dragon Ball Z was mentioned as the example from this space, but in no way were they confined to that particular story.
Dragon Ball Z is the follow-up story to Dragon Ball telling the story of Son Goku and his friends as they protect our world from all manner of evil, fighting battles in a number of different realms. It’s been featured on both The CW and Adult Swim, garnering massive popularity for its style and story. The show ran almost seven years in the early 90s and remains one of the most popular shows from the anime genre. The merchandising alone has run into the billions of dollars over the years. Zack Snyder bringing something like this to the big screen would be no small feat.
And it looks like Zack Snyder is dipping his creative toes into the world of anime sooner than later, one of the reasons the interview was focused on this Dragon Ball Z idea a bit. His Netflix hit Army of the Dead is getting its own anime spinoff show, a prequel story Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas. Snyder is on as Executive Producer and the show will focus on the time before the events of the movie. All of the major characters, including Dave Bautista, are back voicing their respective characters. It will be set in the time leading up to the zombie outbreak, presumably culminating in what we saw during the open credit sequence in the movie. Zack Snyder is set to direct two episodes in the series.
Will Zack Snyder end up directing a Dragon Ball Z adaptation? It’s probably a stretch. But this director likes to dream big and there’s almost no bigger name in the anime space than this one.
