Snyder Cut: Zack Snyder Says There’s “Little Chance” He Directs Another DC Movie After Justice League

Snyder Cut director Zack Snyder believes there's "very little chance" he returns to the DC Extended Universe to realize plans for Justice League 2 and 3. Nearly four years after he stepped away from Justice League to deal with a family tragedy, the Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice filmmaker returned to the DC universe to restore and release the Snyder Cut — the four-hour director's cut that went unfinished and unseen by audiences until its March 18 streaming premiere on HBO Max. Amid a growing number of voices calling on WarnerMedia to Restore the SnyderVerse and fulfill Snyder's five-movie arc, Snyder casts doubt on a future at DC Films:

"There are some hints [about Justice League 2 and 3], but more I would say on a sort of teaser level to what would come. But this was really a big bite anyway, what we wanted to do for this first Justice League film," the director told Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon about sequel setups in Zack Snyder's Justice League. "So there was a lot to get done in the first four hours, I felt like, and that was really all we shot. Though yes, there was a plan for more."

Some of those plans are on display at the Dreamscapes of Zack Snyder's Justice League exhibit located at the AT&T Discovery District complex in Dallas, Texas, where visitors get an up-close look at the suits and artifacts from the newly-filmed Knightmare sequence that ends the Snyder Cut. The post-apocalyptic Knightmare, where Batman (Ben Affleck) leads an insurgency against an enslaved Superman (Henry Cavill) and the forces of Darkseid (Ray Porter), was a significant part of Snyder's revealed plots for his two-part Justice League finale.

"You can go and take a look and see the other two-movie arc that we had planned. Though I'll say they don't really apply exactly to where we ended up," Snyder said. "That was done [and] written prior to Justice League, so this would be where we'd go from here if I was [doing another movie] — which, you know, there's clearly very little chance I would ever make another movie with the DCU — but if for whatever reason that happened, it would be a lot of the same elements, but probably a different storyline."

Snyder's full plot, which he revealed with spoilers, had Batman sacrificing himself to save humanity. In Justice League 3, Superman would be the main hero who leads the Justice League and the Armies of Men into war against Apokolips and its ruler Darkseid — culminating in what Snyder describes as a "Lord of the Rings-like finale."

Even as many of the same fans who campaigned for the release of the Snyder Cut rally behind a new cause to #RestoretheSnyderVerse, Ann Sarnoff, Chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group, appeared to pour water on those hopes when she told Variety that there are no plans for a Snyder-directed Justice League 2.

"I appreciate that they love Zack's work and we are very thankful for his many contributions to DC," Sarnoff said in an interview published days after the Snyder Cut's viewer-grabbing first weekend. "We're just so happy that he could bring his cut of the Justice League to life because that wasn't in the plan until about a year ago. With that comes the completion of his trilogy. We're very happy we've done this, but we're very excited about the plans we have for all the multi-dimensional DC characters that are being developed right now."

"We wanted to give Zack the opportunity to complete his vision in a four-hour movie, which is impossible to do in theaters," Sarnoff added. "We're happy that we have HBO Max to let the rope out as it were and allow the fans to see all four-hours of Zack's vision."

Zack Snyder's Justice League and the exclusive black-and-white version titled Justice League: Justice Is Gray are now streaming on HBO Max.