James Gunn has been the head of DC Films for a year, but despite unveiling a new Superman and a raft of new projects, he just can’t escape the SnyderVerse.
This shambling corpse of a cinematic universe remains a hot topic despite the mountain of evidence that there’s no way on Earth Henry Cavill is ever going to don a red cape again. Now, with the first part of Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic Rebel Moon days away from release, the “visionary director” has reignited hopes by saying that he’d “absolutely” return to the SnyderVerse “if Netflix had the rights to the characters from my DC universe.”
Let’s be clear: the chances of Netflix getting the rights to use the Justice League (or any DC characters) are essentially zero. That said, the SnyderVerse having even a faint heartbeat won’t sit well with Gunn as he begins his hard reboot.
We already know Gunn’s broad opinion about a DC/Netflix deal, as he responded to a fan campaign to “sell the SnyderVerse to Netflix” back in November. Gunn described this as one of the “wackiest” things he’d seen and said:
1) Netflix hasn’t expressed any such interest (although we’ve discussed other stuff) & 2) Zack hasn’t expressed any interest & seems to be happy doing what he’s doing (and, yes, we too have talked).”
Gunn also said Snyder “contacted him to express his support” of the new DCU plans and it’s worth remembering that the two have been on good terms ever since they worked together on 2004’s Dawn of the Dead.
All of that said, their friendship may break down if Snyder continues dangling this carrot in front of his notoriously pushy die-hard fanbase. Gunn simply doesn’t need the spectre of the SnyderVerse haunting his shiny new DCU, so there’s no doubt that he’ll be praying Snyder shuts up and focuses on Rebel Moon for the foreseeable future.
It’s worth remembering that there may be a compromise that would satisfy the Snyderbros and not step on Gunn’s toes. Snyder is well-known for meticulously storyboarding his movies, so why not conclude the SnyderVerse saga in a DC comic book?
In 2021, Snyder hinted that he’d once planned to explore the “Knightmare” future in a comic about “the ragtag team that’s left alive” as well as finally show us the sad fate of the SnyderVerse Robin:
“We talked about doing a [comic book]. DC, they decided not to do it. I wanted to do a sort of a mini kind of comic book run on the death of Robin, and what happened. How Joker killed Robin, and what it did to Batman and started him sort of down this darker road that ended, kind of culminated with the arrival of Superman.”
Another option could be to wrap up the SnyderVerse as a DC Universe Animated Original Movie. Warner Bros. Animation is currently working on a three-part Crisis on Infinite Earths movie and an R-rated Watchmen adaptation for 2024, and Snyder already has some animation experience from his (underrated) 2010 owl-focused epic Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.
Snyder is still on good terms with the SnyderVerse cast, so we’re betting that a few phone calls would be all it takes to get his Justice League in a recording studio to finally conclude the decade-long saga that began with Man of Steel. And if you think this all sounds like wishful thinking, just remember that Zack Snyder’s Justice League was a ludicrous pipe dream until it suddenly wasn’t.
