Zack Snyder Doesn’t Get Why Fans Hate Him

While filmmaker Zack Snyder fully understands that not every viewer will love his movies, he recently expressed how he doesn’t quite understand how to handle the fact that some detractors seemingly hate him personally, extending beyond their dislike of his movies. Having developed so many films in the world of superheroes, Snyder did theorize that one reason audiences might express a personal disdain for him is due to how passionate fans are about superheroes, so tackling any project in which he deviates from expectations could see audience disappointment be expressed exponentially and outside of the film itself. In this sense, he expressed how he fully understands that passion for the superhero genre, as he has the same enthusiasm for them.

“I remember the last article said, ‘Zack Snyder: Love him or hate him.’ And I’m like, ‘Hate him?!’ I don’t understand. What? It’s a movie,” Snyder recently recalled on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “I have no issue with you not liking the movie. That’s not the question. Who cares? The thing is, you’d hate me? I don’t understand that.”

He continued, “That’s a lifestyle choice for a lot of people. It’s not a movie … If I made a romantic comedy, you’d be like, ‘OK, that was fun.’ I love that [fans] feel this passionately. In no way would I criticize that, because I live the same life. For me, it’s morning, noon, and night. For those guys, it’s not just a movie. So you have to, on some level, you have to acknowledge that this is their religion. And they feel strongly about it. The truth is — it’s my religion, too.”

Snyder first entered the world of comic books with 300, then returned to the world for Watchmen, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Outside of comics, he’s also delivered genre experiences like Dawn of the Dead, Sucker Punch, Army of the Dead, and Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire. In addition to delivering so many films within genres that audiences are incredibly passionate about, another trend exhibited by his films is the divisive reactions to them, especially discrepancies between critics and general audiences, as they rarely agree on his accomplishments.

While no audiences should necessarily judge who the filmmaker is as a person based on their directing choices, it would seem that both the love and the hate he might earn from viewers are based on things he regularly highlights in his movies, which is why reactions to his films go beyond the films themselves. 

Rebel Moon: Part 2 – The Scargiver is set to premiere on April 19th.

What do you think of the filmmaker’s remarks? Let us know in the comments!