Zack Snyder says fans who criticise Batman for killing people are 'living in a dream world'

Zack Snyder has delivered a sweary riposte to those who criticised him for the fact Batman kills people in his 2016 blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Speaking at a Q&A event hosted by social media platform Vero, Snyder told fans who wanted their superheroes to avoid lethal force to “wake the f**k up”.

Read more: Batman v Superman stars respond to critics

The incarnation of Batman portrayed by Ben Affleck in the film proved to divide superhero fans, with some stating that a willingness to kill people runs contrary to the character’s moral code.

Reddit user gator_123 shared the footage of Snyder’s response to a question surrounding the controversial decisions regarding Bruce Wayne’s character.

Snyder said: “If someone says to me ‘oh, Batman killed a guy’, I’m like ‘f**k…really? Wake the f**k up’.

“Once you’ve like lost your virginity to this f**king movie and then you come and say to me something about ‘oh, my superhero wouldn’t do that’, I’m like ‘are you serious?’ because I’m down the f**king road on that.

“It’s a cool point of view to be like: ‘My heroes are still innocent. My heroes didn’t f**king lie to America. My heroes didn’t embezzle money. My heroes didn’t commit any atrocities.’

“That’s cool, but you’re living in a f**king dream world, okay?”

Read more: How to reboot the DC movie universe

Snyder went on to compare his work to that of Alan Moore, whose graphic novel Watchmen was adapted by Snyder into a 2009 movie.

He said: “Watchmen talked about comic books in the same way that this movie talks about comic book movies. It talked about comic books when they were broken. He was just addressing that.”

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice received largely negative reviews, but earned $874m (£661m) at the global box office.

Read more: Affleck shares sadness over telling son Batman news

The characters returned in 2017’s Justice League, which was again directed by Snyder, until he chose to step aside midway through post-production after the death of his daughter.

Avengers director Joss Whedon completed the production, which went on to make $658m (£498m) worldwide.