Zack Snyder Seemingly Teases Something DC-Related In A Cryptic Video Voiced By Justice League Villain Darkseid
The #RestoreTheSnyderverse folks are freaking out again, because Zack Snyder is out here teasing a vague association with Warner Bros' DC properties. This is in spite of the fact that James Gunn has emerged as DC Studios' chief creative force, and is forging ahead with a multi-year plan of projects unconnected to Snyder's continuity, including as writer-director of Superman: Legacy.
Although Gunn has left the door open to Elseworld stories throughout the DC multiverse, Snyder's run doesn't seem to be in those plans. If that's the case, then, why would Snyder tease something this vague? What does "full circle" mean, exactly?
Here are my three best guesses as to what these April 28 through 30 dates entail, in order of likelihood:
- Theatrical screenings of Zack Snyder's Justice League in select cities
- Social media simulcast watch parties with fan Q&As
- A table read of Zack Snyder's original Justice League trilogy plans
Door No. 1: We know that back in October of this past year, Kevin Smith announced plans to screen Zack Snyder's Justice League in theaters. Haven't really heard any update on that since. This seems most likely to be the big news.
Door No. 2: Snyder has done fan events before, one of which was affectionately labeled "Snyder Con" back in March 2019. There he screened his desired cut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. AKA the far superior Ultimate Edition. Then took questions. That was in person, before COVID.
Since the pandemic hit, many of the mass interactions Snyder has had with fans of late — and where he announced the Snyder Cut was actually happening — came via watch parties with fans on the social media platform Vero. I could see, like, three days of marathon screenings of all the completed Snyder DC flicks. So Man of Steel, BvS and his Justice League. Or just doing one of those on each respective day.
Whatever comes of that second option and whatever form it takes (in-person or virtual), I suspect if it's a Snyder Con thing, he'll tee up a big teaser for his buzzy sci-fi project at Netflix, Rebel Moon. That is essentially the Star Wars movie Snyder tried to pitch to Lucasfilm right before Disney bought the rights. Should be pretty sick.
Moving on…
Door No. 3: This is more of a moonshot but the possibility I'm most hoping for. And I think Zack Snyder gets a bad rap overall for how his tenure with DC's cinematic superheroes played out, so let's explore this for a few minutes. Because hey, you're already here.
Maybe by putting it out in the world it'll manifest someday. Speaking of that 2019 Snyder Con event I mentioned, it was there that Snyder revealed some juicy details about what would've followed his first Justice League effort.
The original Justice League sequel that Snyder co-wrote with Argo Oscar winner Chris Terrio was never shot. They had finished the script by the time of the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice theatrical release. They had so much material ready that Warner Bros' initial intention was to divide that prospective movie into two separate installments, Part 1 and Part 2.
What happened from there was studio panic over BvS' reception and a creative mess of monumental proportions that resulted in a muddled Justice League. In one of my all-time favorite interviews, Terrio tore down the execs who scrapped the version of the Justice League story he and Snyder set out to tell — and butchered BvS' theatrical cut by shedding lots of runtime and key plot points:
"The 2017 theatrical cut [of Justice League] was an act of vandalism. Zack may be too much of a gentleman to say that, but I’m not.
"[…] If you took 30 minutes out of Argo, as they were from Batman/Superman, it would make zero sense at all. Critics would say, 'what a lazy screenplay,' because the characters don’t have motivations and it's not coherent…And I would agree with them.
"…[It] wasn’t called Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice by me. I did not name the script. In fact, I found out what the movie was called along with the rest of the world on the internet. I was not consulted on the title of the film, and I was as surprised as anyone. I would not have named it Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. […] I heard it and I thought, it just sounds self-important and clueless in a way. Tone-deaf."
Joss Whedon took over Justice League's directing duties for Snyder once the latter stepped away due to a family tragedy. Whedon overhauled the script and reshot a significant chunk of the film. Unfortunately for the fledging interconnected cinematic universe, Whedon's Marvel magic didn't carry over.
Once HBO Max burst onto the streaming scene, the impassioned fans of the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign finally got their opportunity to see Snyder's original, uninhibited version of Justice League. It resulted in a four-hour epic that was far superior to what was released to the general public. Although you could never do a four-hour theatrical cut, it goes to show the grand scope and ambitious vision Snyder brings to these big IP projects.
At an exhibit in Dallas, Texas that stopped in May 2021, the storyboards and story treatments Snyder was going to shoot for the second and third parts of his Justice League trilogy (h/t Daily Planet DC) were on display along with all kinds of other props, costumes and memorabilia. Surely some changes and rewrites would've taken place from this initial sketch, but the real bones of what Snyder actually wanted to do with these DC characters was all there.
Long story short: it was an apocalyptic wasteland (colloquially known as the "Knightmare" future timeline) where Darkseid ruled Earth and got Superman to break bad via the Anti-Life Equation. All this was ultimately teased very briefly in ZSJL.
I always thought it'd make sense for an animated version of the rest of that story to be told. That way Snyder and his biggest fans can get closure and see his vision all the way through to the end. In other words, FULL CIRCLE. But I didn't even pitch that as a possibility given all the cuts Warner Bros Discovery is making. I mean, they shelved the entire Batgirl movie. Can't imagine they'll spend tons of money to animate a story they deliberately moved off of years ago and are ultimately trying to rebrand away from.
If there be any of ye Snyder diehards out there, would be curious to know your thoughts on what this April 28-30 tease could be. Setting theatrical Zack Snyder's Justice League screenings as the -350 favorite.