Justice League: Zack Snyder Addresses Reports About Snyder Cut Fans Using Bots

Zack Snyder's Justice League arrived on HBO Max in 2021, being a rare instance of a longstanding fan campaign coming to fruition. The "Snyder Cut" movement has been the topic of quite a lot of conversation, including claims that artificial "bot" accounts might have been used to gain traction online. in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder addressed those reports — and argued that because their efforts ultimately succeeded, "it doesn't matter."

"The truth is? It doesn't matter. The movie got made," Snyder explained. "If they were smart enough to employ bots in this thing, then they won. That movie has no business existing – and it does."

Did the Snyder Cut Campaign Use Bots?

Multiple reports have hinted at Snyder's fans utilizing bots, beginning with a 2022 report from The Wrap regarding the Oscars' inaugural "Fan Favorite" and "Cheer Moment" awards, which went to Snyder's Army of the Dead and Zack Snyder's Justice League, respectively. Their report cites two findings from the hashtag analytics tracking tool Tweetbinder, which determined that the most active contributors to both polls were autonomous web programs which seemingly cast thousands of fake votes for Army of the Dead and Zack Snyder's Justice League. This seemingly resulted in some surprising trends, such as a single-day spike on February 27th where over 25,000 votes were cast, as opposed to the usual daily average of between 4,000 and 15,000 votes. David Kirsch, a University of Maryland professor who is cited in the article, also argues that the activities of the accounts voting for Snyder "certainly do not look like they were generated by a human user."

A subsequent report from Rolling Stone dove into the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut hashtag, claiming that at least 13 percent of the accounts that were part of the Snyder Cut conversation online were fake.

What Is Zack Snyder Making for Netflix?

Snyder's collaboration with Netflix, which began with 2021's Army of the Dead, has inspired multiple film and television projects, including the upcoming two-part epic Rebel Moon. This includes several Army of the Dead spinoffs — a prequel film Army of Thieves, the upcoming sequel Planet of the Dead, and an animated series titled Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas. He also is set to be involved with Twilight of the Gods, an animated series for the streamer inspired by Norse mythology.

"I would hope that anything Snyderverseian is [whatever] we're doing as original IP," Snyder explained in a 2021 interview. "The DC universe is something that's very close to my heart and something I spent a lot of time developing and thinking about, so I love it. But where I am right now is with the Rebel Moon of it all and the Army of the Dead of it all. They're very much consuming our creative output. Hopefully, just anything that we're doing that's original and cool would fit into that category."

What do you think of Zack Snyder's new comments about the Snyder Cut movement? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!