Hope is a powerful thing. It can either help carry someone to where they’re destined to be, and beyond, or it can chain them to purgatory and prevent them from ever coming within sniffing distance of being great. It’s unclear which of those realities apply at the moment to die-hard fans of the Snyderverse and the now-defunct DCEU it once drove, but it’s clear Zack Snyder’s most passionate fans refuse to accept James Gunn, his DCU and his new Boy in Blue, David Corenswet’s Superman, over Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel — for starters.
It’s truly become one of the most divided factions in the history of superhero movie franchises, plural, given those who would also rather see Ben Affleck continue as Batman, but even Jason Momoa has moved on from Aquaman, and into the role of Lobo for Gunn’s upcoming Supergirl movie. Still, on this day, the eight-year anniversary of Justice League landing in theaters, Snyderverse fans are at full roar.
Any reports you see in the images below are unfounded and not credible at this time, used solely for the purposes of illustrating a point.
To be clear, again, there are no credible reports about either Snyder or Christopher Nolan, the latter having set the platinum standard for Batman with his Dark Knight trilogy (that was not affiliated with Snyder, by the way), and that means DC Studios is still in the full control of Gunn and Peter Safran. Of course, as he is known to do from time to time, Snyder has begun to stoke the fires within his fan base, this time by way of seemingly random Instagram posts of his Superman, Batman and Jared Leto’s Joker, making sure to keep the wave of support alive and well in the DC streets.
It’s a tactic that’s worked in the past, when a groundswell of support from fans became an entire movement that forced Warner Bros. Discovery to release Snyder’s version of Justice League, then followed by a monochromatic release on HBO Max, so Snyder does at least have that on his Resumè of Revolt. As a related sidebar, there’s the Coyote vs. Acme film, the John Cena-led movie that was shelved after completion but, after another tsunami of upset fans hit the digital streets, but also the concrete ones — literally picketing outside of the studio — drove Warner Bros. Discovery to finally award a release date in 2026 (and let’s not talk about the Sonic the Hedgehog redesign fiasco from Paramount, but that’s a third example, yes).
Like It or Not, Snyderverse Is ‘Under the Gunn’
As it stands, nobody in power is budging on the idea of reigniting the Snyderverse for DC Studios. Quite the opposite is true, with there being no plans in the works for a Justice League sequel, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman franchise collecting dust, the controversial Ezra Miller still licking wounds from a poorly-received The Flash, Ben Affleck having moved on from writing a Batman film as Gunn looks to recast the role, and as Robert Pattinson puts the final touches on the Elseworld’s version, The Batman: Part II. Even The Rock’s successful attempt to get Warner Bros. Discovery to patch things up with Cavill for a cameo (and, at the time, an upcoming clash) with Black Adam was sent to the landfill the instant Gunn took the wheel.
And so the world stands eight years removed from Snyder’s last go at a DC superhero movie, with only IG posts and incredible flights of fancy from grifter social accounts designed to farm engagement with rage/hope bait, and literally nothing has changed as the calendar prepares to flip to 2026. That leaves Snyderverse fans with the choice to either hold onto their hope and believe that, in the end, they’ll have the last laugh, or to come to terms with the possibility of being trapped in purgatory for the next couple of decades while DC Studios keeps a firm grip on their Gunn.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is currently streaming on HBO Max.
Release Date
November 17, 2017
Runtime
120 Minutes
Director
Zack Synder
Writers
Chris Terrio, Joss Whedon
Producers
Charles Roven, Geoff Johns, Deborah Snyder, Jon Berg