Zack Snyder’s last two action films before Man of Steel were both serious under performers. Watchmen barely made a profit, with a $130 million production budget it managed to take in $185 million. Meanwhile, Sucker Punch with a production budget of $82 million, barely made $89 million which is gonna be a loss for the studio once you factor in whatever the promotional budget was.
He has a consistent track record of middling performance at the box office. Not the ideal candidate to hand your multi-billion dollar franchise to. Which Warner Brothers has finally learned as they’ve quietly moved him more toward a producer role while giving Ben Affleck more agency in his place.