Zack Snyder’s passionate online community knows a thing or two about successful social media campaigns. Rallying behind the Twitter hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, Snyder’s followers lobbied Warner Bros. for three years to get the actual cut of Zack Snyder’s 2017 film Justice League released to the public. The original film had been mutilated beyond recognition, and Snyder informed his fans that his actual cut existed. So they fought, and fought, and eventually won. Since then, the community has tried to keep Snyder’s vision moving forward, hoping the director’s original plan for two more stories in this saga could be restored. They wouldn’t be part of the DC Films timeline, but they’d still conclude a chapter. Their latest idea, though, has a number of issues working against it.
After attempting to get #RestoreTheSnyderVerse off the ground, the organizers behind the latest social media trend believe that it’s possible for Warner Bros. to somehow sell the SnyderVerse to Netflix, where Snyder currently has a deal that has led to two movies in the Army of the Dead series, and will lead to the epic sci-fi thriller Rebel Moon. The social media warriors have selected the new hashtag #SellTheSnyderVerseToNetflix, and are planning a trending event for February 14. The date has significance because when Snyder was encouraging fans to lobby for his Snyder Cut of Justice League, one of the rallying points was the fact that his cut was 214 minutes long. Ergo, 2/14.
Ready the hashtags & use the old ways....tweet on 2/14: #SellZSJLtoNetflix #SellTheSnyderverseToNetflix pic.twitter.com/HiFQvHX789January 9, 2023
In theory, it’s a tantalizing idea. Netflix seems very excited over its collaboration with Zack Snyder, with rumors even circulating that the director’s anticipated Rebel Moon will be two movies, with the potential for more. This is “Snyder’s Star Wars,” for lack of a better description, and he appears to be laying out a massive universe that can be explored in movies and television series, if the demand is there.
Speaking of demand, Zack Snyder’s DC fans continue to demand more stories in that specific corner of the DC universe – dubbed the SnyderVerse – without realizing how unlikely this reality is. Warner Bros. currently owns the rights to all of the characters in the DC universe. After years of tumult and a lack of leadership, the major studio has just turned its keys over to James Gunn and Peter Safran, who will be announcing a portion of their 8-10 year plan for DC Films this year. Why would the license their most valuable assets – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and more – to the competition in Netflix?
They wouldn’t. There’s already a fair share of brand confusion in house at WB, with Matt Reeves making Batman movies and Todd Phillips planning Joker stories in what sounds like independent universes. We don’t know how those movies will fit into Gunn and Safran’s overall plan. But you can bet those two producers are putting their heads together for a seamless solution to that ripple they inherited. There’s no way they’d want a competitor, Netflix, to continue an existing thread of DC stories starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot that would only compete with newer versions of the classic characters WB likely want to re-introduce in the coming years.
There’s one example I can think of that might set a precedent for the type of agreement Snyder’s fans are looking for with #SellTheSnyderVerseToNetflix. And that’s Sony’s deal to share one of its assets, Spider-Man, with Disney and Marvel for MCU movies. But everyone involved with that deal would tell you that it has been complicated, with the studios arguing over profit percentages, threatening to pull out of the deal, and forcing Tom Holland to basically step in and save his spot at the MCU table. Also, Sony wasn’t actively trying to get another Spider-Man movie of their own into the marketplace at the same time that Holland was playing the character for Marvel and Disney. WB will be trying to use its DC heroes, and therefor would not want them in movies being made by Zack Snyder at Netflix.
Believe me, I understand the disappointment that is being felt by the Snyder fanbase who merely want more stories in this world. And the way that they have been treated lately has been harsh, believing that their preferred Superman, Henry Cavill, was returning to the role… only to learn that this wouldn’t be the case. Some fans also have held out hope that The Flash somehow might restore an alternate timeline where Ben Affleck could continue to play Batman without interfering with Gunn and Safran’s new plan. That makes more sense to me than selling IP to Netflix, because at least that still keeps these valuable characters in house. However, with Cavill admitting that he will not be back in the tights, and Snyder seemingly content at Netflix for the time being, I’m willing to bet The Flash does not create this side pocket of a universe, and that WB and DC Films move forward in a different direction.
As Snyder fans have proven, though, things in Hollywood aren’t completely impossible. Strange deals occur. Previously thought certainties fall through. The industry’s pendulum doesn’t swing from side to side. It’s more erratic. But when historic deals happen, they tend to make sense for all parties involved, and selling or licensing DC’s major characters to Netflix doesn’t make sense for Warner Bros. in the slightest, so I’m hard pressed to believe we will see that announcement any time soon.
