Christopher Nolan has said that he considers Zack Snyder’s Watchmen to be a film that was “ahead of its time”.

Watchmen was released in 2009, based on the DC Comics limited series of the same name by Alan Moore. It was set in an alternate, dystopian version of 1985, following a group of retired superheroes as they investigate the murder of one of their own.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Nolan said: “I’ve always believed Watchmen was ahead of its time. The idea of a superhero team, which it so brilliantly subverts, wasn’t yet a thing in movies.”

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“It would have been fascinating to see it released post-Avengers,” he added.

Snyder’s new film Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, starring Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam and Anthony Hopkins, is released in the UK on December 15, before arriving on Netflix a week later.

Last month, Nolan responded to Martin Scorsese‘s assertion that cinema needs to be saved from superheroes, sequels, reboots and franchises.

Scorsese had suggested that such films present a “danger to our culture… because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those—that’s what movies are”.

In response, Nolan, who himself directed the Dark Knight trilogy of films, expressed his view that there is room for both original content and superhero movies.

“There’s always a balance in Hollywood between established titles that can assure a return in audience and give people more of what they want, that’s always been a big part of the economics of Hollywood,” he said.

“And it pays for lots of other types of films to be made and distributed.”

“A healthy ecosystem in Hollywood is about a balance between the two things and always has been.”

Elsewhere, Nolan recently confirmed that he will not be directing the next James Bond film and that there is no truth in the rumours linking him to the spy franchise.

Nolan also recently discussed the “danger” of films only being available via streaming, stressing that he believes in the ongoing importance of physical media.

Nolan’s Oppenheimer scored a glowing five-star review from NME upon its release in July. In the review, NME wrote that the film was “not just the definitive account of the man behind the atom bomb”, but a “monumental achievement in grown-up filmmaking”.