Media Essays: Is The Snyder-Verse Coming Back?

Written by The Wandering Fox

Freddy smiled as he looked at himself in the mirror, loving the new look he got with his taller size and fluffier chest.

Freddy: Man this is good! The boots look great as well!

He looked to his black and red boots while Teddy tutted.

Teddy: Yeah, you got a new look, I’m still stuck at a kitten size!

Freddy: You’ll get there mate! You can only change not go back!

That’s quite right, Freddy, we go forward, not back. Well, not everybody is like that, and to be fair I’m the same in some cases. But today is a topic of a desire to go back to an old universe.

Teddy: Oh here we go.

Freddy: Yeah, I been hearing about this for months.

That’s right, you got it. Hi everybody, it’s me, the Wandering Fox, and I’m here to talk of this rumour that’s certainly not gone away for months. I’m talking about the return of the Snyderverse, AKA the DCEU Zack Snyder envisioned for his movies. You all know the story of Zack Snyder’s time at DC, his movies were met with a mixed reception with Man of Steel either deemed too dark for Superman or a bold new direction, then Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a greatly debated movie between many calling it a mess and others a masterpiece. We cannot deny that BvS as a whole changed the course of the DCEU for the worse as despite some decent movies coming out like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam, the DCEU was doomed with the making of Justice League now a well known topic in the movie making sphere and led to the DCEU going out with a whimper with The Flash and Aquaman 2, and even then the new DCU hasn’t exactly escaped the throws of the DCEU with many torn on Gunn keeping certain bits of the Snyderverse but trying to say it’s a fresh new universe.

I long accepted the DCEU is gone. I’ll miss Henry Cavill as Superman, as well as Gal and Ben, but I’ve accepted it. I’m fine with Robert Pattinson as Batman, I like him in that role and while The Batman is not perfect I liked quite a lot of it and have been waiting for the sequel. Like I said though, aside from the Batman sequel, I’m done with superhero movies as a whole, I feel that they’ve either gotten bland or too divisive to get back into and I’m checking out other things. But why am I talking about this supposed return to the Snyderverse? Well, this is where things get a bit complex.

Warner Bros Discovery Sale

Before I continue there’s a few things I want to stress here:

While Paramount is now the winner in the bidding, the deal hasn’t gone through yet as they still face a lot of hurdles to get through, like reviews by Congress and film experts to see if they’re manageable or right to buy up Warner. So basically it’s not for sure if they will buy Warner even if they have become the winners in the bidding.

There’s a lot of political elements in regards to the Warner sale, and as you know I’m very light once it comes to politics so I’m gonna avoid talking those bits in this.

Back to the essay.

I’m sure many of you are aware by now, but for those that don’t I’ll sum it up like this: Warner Bros Discovery was up for sale and the companies competing for it were Netflix and Paramount. It first seemed like Netflix was gonna be the buyer but Paramount was not giving up and after weeks to months of bidding, Netflix gave up and let Paramount buy up Warner. That means Jason Voorhees is in charge of Freddy Krueger lol.

However, aside from the corporate battles for Warner that was talked about, there was another topic that was up there with it. That being the Snyderverse coming back. I followed this and there was lots of chatter that either Netflix or Paramount were interested in bringing the Snyderverse back and James Gunn would be out. While following it as I did, many believed that because Zack Snyder was uploading photos of his time working on the DCEU it meant he was in talks of coming back.

Now. Where do I stand on this?

I personally believe it’s not coming back.

That’s what I believe. That and I have to be logical about this, cos while I’d love to have Cavill back, I have to look at the facts of business: no company is gonna buy Warner Bros Discovery for a franchise that is kaput. Nor are they gonna buy a company when DC has rebooted their films. Paramount wants to buy Warner not for a tiny fraction of what they got. Warner Bros has other franchises like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, the film rights to Mortal Kombat, Cartoon Network, A Nightmare on Elm Street, HBO, Godzilla and Kong, can you begin to imagine what Paramount would like to do with all that? Like, c’mon!

But let’s just move Paramount aside for a moment. Going back to before Netflix was even revealed to be up for buying it, there was those saying that Netflix was gonna have the Snyderverse come back and they wanted Zack Snyder to work on it. There’s just a teeny weeny tiny problem…ZACK SNYDER LEFT NETFLIX WHILE THIS BIDDING BEGAN! His projects at Netflix were a failure, his Rebel Moon movies were that poorly received that his franchise for that is now kaput, a lot of his works are done now. He’s left Netflix. Why would they take him back after a lot of failures? Why would they buy all that money just to waste it on his cancelled universe? That isn’t how businesses work…alright Kathleen Kennedy would do something like that but even she passed on his Rebel Moon pitch.

Then as soon as Paramount became the winner, they were saying again “Zack’s coming back, he’s gonna restore the Snyderverse!” Uh…look. Paramount have made dumb choices in its years. They screwed about Friday the 13th ever since it was made, they’re bringing Michael Bay back for Transformers, they tried to do a G.I Joe movie repeatedly and failed. Yes, they’re idiots in handling certain properties. But even they would look at the Snyderverse and think that it isn’t worth bringing it back, since that would only interfere with what is going on with DC right now. Then there’s the other factors like the actors.

They’ve either moved on or some of them are fruit loops. Henry Cavill has moved on to other films, same with Ben who, despite coming back for the Flash, has moved on and with the stress he was under in playing Batman may not want to come back, Jason Momoa is doing all kinds of stuff, the Rock is not keen on coming back, Jesse Eisenberg is dead uninterested in coming back to the point he told Nicholas Hoult not to look at his Lex Luthor for inspiration. Then there’s Ezra and Amber…you know, Ezra “went on a rampage and almost killed a few people” Miller and Amber “Warner reduced my role in Aquaman 2 because of Johnny, I’m totally telling the truth” Heard. With the actors done why would they return to a franchise that will take up a lot of their time and will be weary on whether this will even succeed? And how will you get this going again when Ezra and Amber are problematic?

The photos Zack has been uploading are more him reminiscing his time working on DC, this year is the 10th anniversary of BvS and when they started filming Justice League. While Zack did have a recent interview saying he could get his original story made either in comic or animated form, it depends how lenient Paramount will be on that and whether Peter Safran and other creatives at Warner would want that era of DC back. That and while Gunn is friends with Snyder I doubt he’d want the previous era trying to outshine his era. That and Snyder’s original plans for his Justice League trilogy went a lot darker and shifted Superman out of focus for Batman and that will reignite the intense debate of how dark Snyder took the DCEU and whether he should be allowed or not.

But still, let’s play on it. Let’s see if they did bring the Snyderverse back. They’d have to:

Negotiate contracts with Cavill, Affleck and Gadot, including those actors having to step away from the projects they’re working on now. That means lots of money.

Cavill will probably want a more creative say in how to do Superman. Henry has looked back and wished he was more vocal in what he wanted, to the point he seemingly saw eye to eye with Joss Whedon on how to do Superman. That means he’d probably be against Zack’s plans of Darkseid controlling him and killing Lex Luthor and Lois sleeping with Bruce.

Probably recast Mera the Flash and Cyborg. While Zack said he’s fine with bringing them back, there’s a good chance he’d be overruled by executives. Amber Heard lied in court about Warner reducing her presence in Aquaman 2 and was proven wrong by the then head of DC Walter Hamada, do they don’t want somebody who lied about them coming back. Ezra Miller will bring too much toxicity that many will be questioning why they’d rehire somebody who went on a rampage and a string of other issues to them? Ray Fisher despite exposing Whedon also complained about Warner so while Zack would like to have him back, certain folks won’t. That would mean he’d have to cast new actors for the parts and more contracts wrote up. That means more money.

He might have to recast Lex Luthor since Jesse Eisenberg doesn’t seem to fondly reflect on his time as Lex, to the point he even can’t remember the name of the film he was in.

“I was in this Batman movie and the Batman movie was so poorly received, and I was so poorly received. I’ve never said this before and it’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but I genuinely think it actually hurt my career in a real way, because I was poorly received in something so public.”.”

“I’ve been in poorly received things that just don’t see the light of day, and for the most part, no one knows. But this was so public, and I don’t read notices or reviews or movie press or anything, so I was unaware of how poorly it was received.” - Jesse Eisenberg on Dax Sherperd’s Armchair Podcast.

Story arcs may need to be redone. For example I think lots of people will be livid if Zack went with Lois sleeping with Bruce because the first time she met Bruce he was trying to kill the man she loves, then sleeps with him after Superman dies. That won’t reflect well on Lois or Bruce, nor did it help in the plans Bruce was selfish in that matter. It doesn’t help in both cuts of Justice League there’s near to nothing between Bruce and Lois as the executives came in on Zack and told him not to do that. He did sneak in a pregnancy test pack in Lois’s apartment but I think enough people would be angry at him if he did the story. It doesn’t help either this would shove Superman out of the focus to being a mind controlled slave for Darkseid and the ending would be Batman’s legacy, not Superman’s. Cavill would probably be dead set against it, this would make Zack have to redo it.

He’d have to cast a bunch of actors playing iconic characters just for them to die, like the Riddler would commit suicide after solving the Anti-Life Equation. Lots of money for a small scene.

That’s just among the many hurdles they’d have to jump through to get it going again. And that would only divide people more. I myself wouldn’t be happy if Zack stuck to his plans for Superman as I feel that was enough and I don’t fancy my hero being done over by the man who tried to kill him. I wouldn’t be happy either if Ezra or Amber came back, the latter as well is said to have no chemistry with Jason Momoa who has been more friendly to Johnny Depp so Zack would have a lot on him to cope with.

Even if they were to animate it, money is a big factor in this. They’d have to bring back actors who’d be wanting a lot of money, maybe recast actors, and maybe even rewriting a lot of this as I feel Cavill would be more strongly against Snyder’s plans for Superman. Henry has had enough experience in the industry that he doesn’t want to be mucked about with, he might be friends with Zack but I like to think he’d tell him “I’m not doing this mate, I want Superman MY way”. Then there’s animating it, that will cost a lot of money. Like it or not, money is a big factor in this. The amount of actors in this would be big and they’d want a good amount of it.

Though Paramount has made many mistakes with lots of their franchises, I think there’d be enough executives in place that would stop them from tampering with DC like they have with Transformers, they had a mess with the DCEU after Snyder and Whedon left, they don’t need that again.

What Do I think Paramount Will Do?

I think Paramount will keep things in place for now, though Gunn’s contract expires in 2027 he may get it renewed. It depends on what he’s comfortable with doing as he has kinda let slip he’s found it hard being a director and a creative head and he’s faced some obstacles as well. The most i can see is that Paramount will keep David Corenswet as Superman, see how things work out with Supergirl and Clayface, get Matt Reeves to finish his Batman works so they can introduce their Batman in the DCU. If for argument’s sake Supergirl and Clayface don’t do as well, Paramount might drive the story to a different direction than Gunn’s. The next Superman movie, The Man of Tomorrow, seems more focused on Lex Luthor and Brainiac. Depending on how that’s received could decide Gunn’s fate with DC.

In the meanwhile, Paramount will make its influence known by maybe wanting a crossover between DC and Transformers in the comics. I can see it easily, Superman and Optimus Prime bonding as the hopeful heroes with them from a dead world, the Batmobile becomes a Autobot, Green Lanterns battling Starscream and his Seekers, Megatron working with Brainiac.

I could be wrong on this. Could they maybe get Zack Snyder back and do his universe? Maybe. I could be wrong with Paramount as well. But I’m looking at this logically and I believe it won’t be back. But if I’m wrong, I’ll happily own up to it.

Freddy: Wise words.

Teddy: Yeah, real smart. Now Wandering Fox, are you gonna redesign me or what?

I’ll try that tomorrow, Teddy. Hope you liked this guys, let me know what you think in the comments below.