James Gunn and Zack Snyder recently caused a major stir with the two taking a picture together, and the circumstances of both the picture and both filmmakers’ involvement with DC movies solidify that the Snyderverse is never going to die, disappear, or otherwise go away. Zack Snyder’s time as a DC movie director has left a profound impact on superhero movies, with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League each standing the test of time despite Snyder’s divisive reputation as a superhero filmmaker (and, in the case of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, being a literal history maker with the circumstances of its release.) While James Gunn has since become captain of the DC movie and TV ship, Snyder’s own tenure has also been brought back into the spotlight by Gunn himself.
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In their friendly picture together shared on social media by Gunn, the Superman director commented “Always a pleasure catching up with my friend Zack Snyder, consummate filmmaker (and a doubly consummate storyteller!)” Gunn subsequently clarified that Snyder had simply visited DC Studios and the two took a friendly photo, while acknowledging that both were fully aware of the reaction it would inspire. While it might have been a bit of fun internet trolling on the part of Snyder and Gunn, the fact of their awareness of what their response would be along with the response itself makes something crystal clear – the Snyderverse, and the desire many fans still hold to see Snyder’s intentions for it completed, is now a permanent staple of everything related to DC.
Yes, Zack Snyder & James Gunn Absolutely Knew What They Were Doing With Their Picture Together
Within minutes of Gunn posting his picture with Snyder to social media, the rumor mill kicked into overdrive. Immediately, theories and speculation were rampant that Snyder was being courted by Gunn to direct a DCU project (The Authority in particular being a popular hypothesis), or that Gunn and Snyder had even had talks about the much advocated restoration of the Snyderverse. For the purposes of this discussion, #RestoreTheSnyderVerse is generally understood as Snyder’s two intended Justice League sequels being greenlight, though related projects such as Ben Affleck’s unmade Batman vs. Deathstroke movie and David Ayer’s original cut of Suicide Squad are also often included under the Snyderverse umbrella. In the end, Gunn and Snyder’s picture was seemingly much ado about nothing in that regard, even as Gunn acknowledged that he and Snyder knew that a swift and explosive social media response would follow and what it would be. That last point is the real kicker on how the Gunn-Snyder picture relates to the Snyderverse.
If we’re being intellectually honest, even without Gunn admitting as much, it is quite simply impossible to believe that both he and Gunn were not one hundred percent aware that the picture they took together would immediately pour gasoline on the eternally burning Snyderverse fire, given the drama surrounding Snyder’s tenure with DC on film. Snyder’s own well-known history of social media teasing during the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut era is testimony that he knows how to stir the online pot like few other filmmakers can. Snyder also fields questions on the theoretical restoration of the Snyderverse from fans and the media to this day, generally answering with a “Sure, I’d love to if the opportunity arose” kind of response. Additionally, Gunn’s own awareness of the continued Snyderverse calls goes without saying in his position as Co-CEO of DC Studios. In short, any forthright analysis of Gunn and Snyder’s picture together in DC Studios cannot ignore or overlook the simple fact that both filmmakers knew what they were doing. However, that understanding doesn’t imply anything nefarious or underhanded on the part of Snyder or Gunn, either. In fact, it’s quite possibly the first time in a long time that anyone in Warner Bros. or DC has been willing to admit to the reality of the last several years of DC movie history.
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Warner Bros. Has Spent Almost A Decade Trying To Move DC Away From Zack Snyder’s Shadow (& Have Failed Miserably To Do So)
Since the divisive response of Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, the general mandate within Warner Bros. has been to guide DC’s cinematic future away from Snyder’s vision, which first began with the studio’s heavy-handed reworking of Justice League in 2017 after his departure following a family tragedy. However, WB’s efforts to move away from Snyder’s influence on DC or the shadow of his tenure as a DC movie director have been, to put it bluntly, an abysmal failure. Warner Bros. learned the hard way what a mistake both the reshooting of Justice League and the covering up of Snyder’s original cut of the movie were over the course of 2017 to 2020, when the non-stop and ever-growing #ReleaseTheSnyderCut calls finally became far too loud to ignore, leading to the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021. Even in the face of the movie’s popularity upon its release and immediate #RestoreTheSnyderVerse calls emerging from that reception (even reaching 1.5 million tweets in a single day on March 25, 2021), Warner Bros. instead continued to insist they were moving away from Snyder’s vision for the DCEU.
That proved to be an exceptionally hard needle to thread, due to Warner Bros. having a generally directionless alternative approach to mapping out the DCEU’s future in Snyder’s absence that couldn’t quell the Snyderverse’s looming presence. This also ran up against the DCEU filmmakers themselves seeming to be much more in favor of linking their movies to the Snyderverse roadmap, a fact particularly illuminated in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash making overt references to events that only take place in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. One might be compelled to think that the DCEU’s end and the DCU’s beginning under Gunn’s tenure might mark the true end of the Snyderverse having any power to influence DC cinematically, but the opposite has instead been the case.
The circumstances of Henry Cavill’s time as Superman being cut short right after his comeback in Black Adam is still a major (and understandable) sore spot for many fans, and one that Gunn’s Superman will have no choice but to wade right through. Moreover, Gunn’s own plans for the DCU actually link it to the DCEU in numerous ways, specifically with several of Gunn’s DCEU projects such as Peacemaker carrying over into the new franchise. Gunn has stated that the upcoming Peacemaker season 2 will address the show’s canonicity within both universes, along with why the Justice League’s cameo in season 1 is the only major element of the show not canon to the DCU. The fact that Peacemaker and the DCU have to address such questions and controversies head-on is proof positive that Snyder’s DCEU and everything connected to it is still alive and well in the public’s memory, and is only going to remain that way with the DCU making overt acknowledgements to it while bringing over various DCEU projects and cast members into the DCU. All of the above shows how, in spite of WB’s insistence that they are done with Zack Snyder’s influence on DC cinematically, the Snyderverse nevertheless still, in some form or fashion, remains present, visible, and relevant to DC’s cinematic past, present, and future. That gives some important context to Gunn’s picture with Snyder and the predictable social media reaction it.
The Snyder-Gunn Picture Is A Tacit Admission (& Acceptance) Of How Much The Snyderverse Lingers Over All Things DC
With it accepted that Snyder and Gunn had to have known the kind of reaction their picture together was going to spark, it actually makes it easier to understand at least some of the intent behind it. In short, both Snyder and Gunn are acknowledging the continued hunger for Snyder’s five-movie Justice League arc to be completed as something that – like it or not – is simply never going to disappear. In turn, it is also both an admission and unspoken acceptance that WB and DC’s efforts to leave the Snyderverse behind them have been an exercise in futility. While Gunn might be planning an ambitious future for the DCU under his leadership at DC Studios, and Snyder might have multiple other non-superhero related projects in the works, both men are also acknowledging up front that the sequels to Zack Snyder’s Justice League have become nothing less than a legend among superhero movie fandom, and legends have a way surviving even the most ferocious slings and arrows that history can throw at them.
None of that is not to say that Snyder and Gunn actually have reached some kind of agreement for Snyder to eventually finish his planned Justice League story which the duo are simply keeping under wraps for the time being. However, what Snyder, Gunn, and everyone seeing the impact of their picture together for what it is clearly can agree upon is that the Snyderverse is the elephant in the room on everything DC related. The simple act Snyder being photographed with the DC Studios co-CEO is an instant powder keg setting off an explosion of “Is Zack Snyder coming back to DC?” speculation. Real or imagined, anything making even the slightest allusion, hint, or tease of Snyder having any connection to DC’s cinematic future immediately puts the spotlight back on an ostensibly dead franchise that Warner Bros. and DC have had an extraordinary amount of difficulty moving on from. With the addition of Gunn’s DCU including connective tissue, cast carry-overs, and general reminders to the DCEU, leaving Snyder’s impact on DC in the past is something is simply never going to happen.
In posting his picture with Zack Snyder to social media, James Gunn himself has helped forever tie Snyder’s name to DC and make the hope and yearning for the Snyderverse’s return and proper conclusion an omnipresent staple of DC on film. Does that mean the Snyderverse will at some point indeed be restored? Perhaps not in the immediate future, but if the Snyder Cut and DC’s inability to escape Snyder’s shadow should teach us nothing else, it is the fallacy of ruling out any scenario related to either one.
Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League are all available to stream on Max, and James Gunn’s Superman will be released in theaters on July 11th.
