Of Course There's No Justice League In The DCU Yet - The Snyder Cut Is Why

James Gunn’s DCU has no established Justice League as of the timeframe in which Gunn’s Superman movie takes place, and the primary reason for that boils down to four words: Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Gunn’s Superman is set to hit theaters on July 11th, and with the movie’s marketing and press tour kicking into high gear, Gunn has also begun providing some context for the movie’s place in the newly debuting DCU and how it will set important events in motion for the new cinematic universe. Among Gunn’s more revelatory comments has been his confirmation (via EW) that DC’s most iconic team of superheroes, the Justice League, has not been formed and effectively does not yet exist, with Gunn simply stating “There is no Justice League in this world… not yet”.

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While Gunn’s “not yet” seems to suggest he intends for the Justice League to form down the road in the DCU’s timeline, doing so is a lot more complicated than it seems with DC’s recent cinematic history. More specifically, the legacy of the very first cinematic Justice League movie, and how it eventually saw the light of day as Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a.k.a. the Snyder Cut, makes tackling the Justice League at all a difficult proposition for the DCU. Put simply, the history of the Snyder Cut and everything attached to it makes Gunn’s decision to start the DCU without an already formed Justice League the most practical approach to DC’s premiere superhero team.

Justice League Is the DC Movie Scar That Still Hasn’t Healed

Of all the DC movies produced and released by Warner Bros. in its ownership of DC as a cinematic brand, Justice League is one of the most stories productions. Following years of WB’s efforts to get a Justice League movie off the ground, including George Miller’s unrealized 2008 project Justice League: Mortal, the project finally entered production as part of the DCEU’s slate, intended to serve as a franchise pay-off following Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman. However, after Batman v Superman became arguably the most polarizing superhero movie ever made, Warner Bros. balked at Zack Snyder’s intended plans for the DCEU, leading the studio to heavily reshoot the then-upcoming Suicide Squad and micromanage Justice League during production (albeit with Snyder covertly shooting his version of Justice League as he intended during principal photography).

From there, the behind-the-scenes stories of the making of Justice League get progressively uglier, with Warner Bros. bringing in Joss Whedon to all but completely reshoot the movie amid Snyder post-production departing during a family tragedy. Whedon also reportedly heavily mistreated the cast and crew, while the production overhaul led to Ben Affleck departing his planned Batman movie and losing the enthusiasm for the role. Justice League‘s theatrical underperformance and Warner Bros. panicked abandonment of Snyder’s plans also had a cascading effect on the entire DCEU, with no replacement plan implemented, every Justice League hero but Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman left in limbo, and a complete lack of clarity on any future direction for either the DCEU or the Justice League as a team. Then came the Snyder Cut…

The Snyder Cut’s Impact Can’t Be Over-Stated

Despite rumors of Justice League undergoing a total reworking after Snyder’s departure, Warner Bros. maintained that Whedon’s reshoots were only intended to finish what Snyder had started – a line that was immediately revealed to be a PR ploy the moment Henry Cavill’s CGI top lip popped up less than a minute in. The #ReleaseTheSnyderCut hashtag was swiftly born before Justice League‘s disappointing opening weekend was finished. While the world flooded with frequent assertions that Snyder’s cut of Justice League didn’t exist at all, Snyder himself fed the conversation with his social media teases of unseen shots, characters, and storyboards from his version of the film.

Eventually, it all came to a head when #ReleaseTheSnyderCut calls expanded to include many Justice League cast and crew members. With Warner Bros. no longer able to ignore the push, the Snyder Cut was officially greenlit and announced on May 20th, 2020, debuting to a strong reception on March 18th, 2021, and inspiring further #RestoreTheSnyderVerse calls right after its release, hitting a 1.5 million tweet milestone on March 25th, 2021. Despite that reception, Warner Bros. then-management distanced itself from both Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Snyderverse calls until the formation of DC Studios after WB’s merger with Discovery led to the DCEU being ended and the DCU getting started. While that’s a lot of history to review in the lead up to the release of Gunn’s Superman and the DCU’s beginning, it is also crucial in understanding Gunn’s statement that no established Justice League exists in the DCU yet.

A DCU Justice League Would Be Too Close To Zack Snyder’s Justice League

The circumstances of the Snyder Cut’s creation and release include some very troubling behind-the-scenes horror stories over the cast and crew’s treatment and the movie’s overhaul while Snyder has going through a family tragedy. Coupled with how much the theatrical Justice League caused such a disastrous chain reaction upon the entire DCEU and Warner Bros. subsequent stonewalling in the face of the Snyder Cut’s popularity, that’s understandably left the Justice League as a team both a point of frustration for many DC fans and a hot potato for virtually any director whose name isn’t Zack Snyder.

All of that has kept Zack Snyder’s Justice League an extremely powerful presence in all things DC, and presents a genuine challenge for approaching the League again. If Gunn were to announce a DCU version of the Justice League in the immediate future, comparisons to Zack Snyder’s Justice League and would be irresistible and distracting. Discourse would flow, and the unfortunate elements of a fandom too often at war would be ignited too. If that announcement came too soon, without established success in the new DCU, every rumor, casting announcement, or reveal about the League’s future would inevitably look back. In short, a new DCU Justice League would have everything working against its chances of thriving and establishing itself on its own terms.

James Gunn’s Superman will be released in theaters on July 11th, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League is available to stream on HBO Max.