This has been a wild year for Zack Snyder fans, particularly those who have bought fully into his vision of the DC Universe. When this past year started, campaigns were still being waged to get Snyder’s cut of his 2017 Justice League movie released. By May, the unthinkable occurred, and HBO Max agreed to back Zack, releasing his full four-hour cut and giving him a budget to properly finish it. The fans were ecstatic, but in time, they grew to want more. You see, Snyder’s Justice League was always meant to be the next chapter in a five-film arc. Given it’s new placement on HBO Max, a streaming service in need of content, could the fans who helped Release the Snyder Cut move on and Restore the SnyderVerse?
If you are on Twitter today, and you have a toe dipped in the DC Films community, you might see the hashtag #RestoreTheSnyderVerse trending. Snyder’s passionate fans have chosen today as a day to trend and get the message across to the powers that be that they’d love to see more stories born out of the characters in Snyder’s specific version of Justice League continued. This has led to hundreds, if not thousands, of supportive Tweets backing Zack Snyder and his long-term plan for DC characters in film.
What might “Restore the SnyderVerse” even look like? Well, we know that Zack Snyder has larger plans mapped out for storytelling purposes. He has that aforementioned five-film story arc that includes such teasy concepts as Darkseid coming to Earth, and the death of some key characters (which I won’t reveal here, because of spoilers if they someday manage to come to fruition). Snyder recently revealed on a podcast that he and DC chief Jim Lee have batted around the idea of extending his stories in a comic-book form. What if they went live-action for HBO Max?
Let’s use Wonder Woman 1984 as a recent example. While we don’t have hard and fast stats, HBO Max suggested that the movie overperformed the company’s expectations starting on Christmas Day. And immediately after that movie opened both in theaters and on the streaming service, Wonder Woman 3 was greenlit.
Why couldn’t that happen for Zack Snyder’s Justice League Part Two?
Fans who have been tracking the progress of this project know that the HBO Max version likely is going to end on a cliffhanger, the way that the movie would have if it hit theaters in 2017. If a slew of people break streaming records for HBO Max by watching Zack Snyder’s Justice League, it seems unlikely that the studio will say, “Well, that was fun,” and walk away. Studios love squeezing every drop of blood from a potential franchise, and if Snyder’s fans show up (trust me, they will), then restoring his vision for the DC universe might be the next obvious step.
Will one key Justice League member sit the next round out, though? Ray Fisher has been vocal about mistreatment on the set of the Justice League reshoots in 2017, calling out replacement director Joss Whedon, as well as producers Jon Berg and Geoff Johns for their behavior. Fisher celebrated the fact that there was an internal investigation into the matters that he raised, and recently, WB revealed that “remedial action” had been taken against certain people, with no real details shared beyond that.
Following a recent NY Times interview with DC Films Walter Hamada, where the executive discussed massive plans for both DC FIlms and HBO Max on the superhero side, Ray Fisher stated that he’d be no part of this:
Does this take Ray Fisher’s involvement as Cyborg in any future DC Films off of the table? For the moment, that appears to be the case, if the actor can be taken at his word. Currently, significant members of the Justice League as formed by Zack Snyder have their immediate DC plans on the calendar. Gal Gadot will reteam with Patty Jenkins for Wonder Woman 3. Ezra Miller is getting The Flash with Ben Affleck’s Batman. Aquaman 2 is in development with James Wan returning to direct Jason Momoa.
In a sense, it feels very much like Snyder’s vision for DC is being restored, but it will be fascinating, as we move into 2021, if those plans will involve either Fisher (who may choose not to participate because of Walter Hamada’s involvement) or Henry Cavill, who is noticeably absent from the future vision at the moment.
So much can happen between now and when Zack Snyder’s Justice League is released (which we believe will happen in March 2021). If the movie -- or four-part limited series -- does extremely well, the ball will be in Warner and HBO Max’s court to see if and how they can move forward. This has been a WILD ride, and it seems like the unusual and unprecedented story is only kicking into a higher gear as we finally Release the Snyder Cut and hopefully Restore the SnyderVerse.
