The world of the DC Comics Extended Universe (DCEU) has been rocked with so much controversy lately. There’s the ongoing matter of whether Amber Heard’s involvement in the upcoming Aquaman sequel has been reduced significantly. And then, there’s the scrapping of Batgirl, which was done without much warning. And of course, there’s the whole other matter of Ezra Miller being mired with scandal as the release date of his solo film, The Flash, approaches.Aside from these, there has also been speculation regarding the future of the DCEU following the transition of its parent company from Warner Bros. to Warner Bros. Discovery. In particular, fans are wondering about the future of Zack Snyder’s SnyderVerse in the DCEU. The director who kicked off the DCEU has been absent since finishing up his Snyder Cut of Justice League. And now, it is unclear if Snyder would ever factor into DCEU’s upcoming plans.
Zack Snyder Has Had A Fractured Relationship With Warner Bros. For Some Time
Like nearly all partnerships, this one started out optimistic. Back then, Snyder was coming off the box office success of the Gerard Butler-led 300. Naturally, Warner Bros. had its eye on the director. He was first brought in for Man of Steel, which propelled Henry Cavill to stardom.
And while the film didn’t become the huge box office hit that the studio was hoping it would be, it had done well enough to convince them that Snyder should helm Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Around this time, however, the relationship started to fracture. Snyder’s second DC film received poor reviews.
“When Batman v Superman came out and we did get a negative reaction from the fans, it was disheartening for all of us,” production head Greg Silverman recalled. “Zack had made these movies, like 300, that were such crowd-pleasers. And that was our job—to make crowd-pleasers. And here, we have made a movie together, and it didn’t really please the audience.”
Despite this, the second film was also a setup for Justice League so naturally, Snyder would return once more. By then, the director would sometimes clash with the studio because he kept going in a creative direction that was anything other “than what they wanted.”
The tension was also evident on set as then-chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara made sure that someone was supervising Snyder as he shot the ensemble film. Despite this, Snyder took the situation in stride. “It didn’t bother me too much because they weren’t that threatening,” he explained. “I just felt the ideas they did have, where they were trying to inject humor and stuff like that, it wasn’t anything that was too outrageous.”
The death of his daughter, Autumn, would eventually lead Snyder to leave the project (although he would a four-hour rough cut of the film on his laptop) altogether with Warner Bros. handing the reigns over to Joss Whedon. Justice League would become a flop and years later, the Snyder Cut movement would be born.
Even when Warner Bros. asked Snyder to release his version of Justice League, however, the tension was palpable. When the studio suggested that he simply released his raw footage, Snyder immediately had doubts.
“I go, ‘Here’s why. Three reasons: One, you get the internet off your back, which is probably your main reason for wanting to do this. Two, you get to feel vindicated for making things right, I guess, on some level. And then three, you get a s***** version of the movie that you can point at and go, ‘See? It’s not that good anyway. So maybe I was right,’” the director recalled.
“I was like, No chance.”
Eventually, Snyder did some reshoots for his Justice League, but he refused payment. “I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone, and it allowed me to keep my negotiating powers with these people pretty strong,” he explained.
Will Zack Snyder Ever Return To The DCEU?
At present, there appears to be no indication that Snyder is returning to the DCEU anytime soon. DC Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee also ruled out the director’s further involvement when he addressed fans at the San Diego Comic-Con.
“I think the Snyder Cut was Zack's vision realized, and it was a really satisfying story told, but there's no plans for additional work on that material,” Lee confirmed.
Perhaps, even more telling, Warner Bros. Discovery has also been making decisive moves to distance itself from Snyder even further. Working on a docuseries that highlights DC’s history, critically acclaimed filmmaker Leslie Iwerks asked to license clips from Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but her request was reportedly denied.
Iwerks was informed that there is only one Justice League, which would be Whedon’s 2017 film.
That said, it’s also worth noting that Snyder did recently return to DC Comics, albeit in animated form. The director voiced himself for the animated series Teen Titans Go!. Beyond that, it’s anybody’s guess for now. And Snyder even once hinted that he’s willing to return should the opportunity come up.
“I always go, what is more likely? That Warner Bros. would ask me to make a sequel to Justice League? Or that they would resurrect a three-year-old movie, spend millions of dollars to restore it to my original [vision], and then release it?” he once told Entertainment Weekly.
“I think that the sequel would have been a more likely scenario than what's just happened. So, I guess in the face of that I say, 'Who knows what the future holds?’”
At the moment, Snyder is hard at work on his Army of the Dead sequel, Planet of the Dead. There’s also the spinoff series, Army of the Dead: Los Vegas. Looks like Snyder is already busy building a whole other SnyderVerse on Netflix.
