With Zack Snyder’s special cut of Justice League’s release, fans are excited about the possibility of Warner Bros continuing with Snyder’s sequel plans.
But WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff has made it clear there is no chance the “Snyderverse” version of the DCEU continues.
Snyder’s plans
Snyder had epic plans for a Justice League trilogy. The second film would have had the League losing to Lex Luthor and his Legion of Doom, which paves the way for Darkseid to conquer Earth.
This would lead to a third movie where the Flash goes back in time to prevent this future from happening. A subplot would have involved Lois Lane becoming pregnant with Bruce Wayne’s child, who becomes a new Batman.
The Snyder cut set up several of these elements to make fans hopeful that its release will have Warner Bros decide to allow Snyder to make both the Justice League sequels and his Batman solo film.
But speaking to Variety, Sarnoff stated that the Snyder Cut will stand on its own as DC continues its own variety of projects.
“I appreciate that they love Zack’s work and we are very thankful for his many contributions to DC. We’re just so happy that he could bring his cut of Justice League to life because that wasn’t in the plan until about a year ago. With that comes the completion of his trilogy. We’re very happy we’ve done this, but we’re very excited about the plans we have for all the multi-dimensional DC characters that are being developed right now.”
Sarnoff added that there are no plans to release David Ayers’ original cut of Suicide Squad. The director had a darker take on the 2016 movie before it was subjected to numerous reshoots.
Fisher and fandom
Sarnoff was mostly subdued when discussing Ray Fisher (Cyborg)’s current allegations about Joss Whedon’s behavior during the Justice League reshoots. Fisher has alleged the director was verbally abusive to him and others on set, with Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa backing his claims.
Sarnoff simply stated how current WarnerMedia CEO Walter Hamada had nothing to do with the movie and that, despite Fisher’s claims, WarnerMedia has not blocked any investigations into Whedon’s actions.
The CEO also decried the toxic part of fandom who were vocal to the point of death threats on DC and Warner Bros executives blocking Snyder’s attempt to finish the film.
We’re not tolerating any of that. That behavior is reprehensible no matter what franchise you’re talking about or what business you’re talking about. It’s completely unacceptable. I’m very disappointed in the fans that have chosen to go to that negative place with regard to DC, with regard to some of our executives. It’s just disappointing because we want this to be a safe place to be. We want DC to be a fandom that feels safe and inclusive. We want people to be able to speak up for the things they love, but we don’t want it to be a culture of cancelling things that any small faction isn’t happy with. We are not about that. We are about positivity and celebration.
At the same time, Sarnoff praised the fan passion that led to the Snyder Cut in the first place.
Future DCEU plans
Sarnoff spoke warmly of DC’s “multipronged” approach, which will utilize both movies and HBO Max shows for a wider audience.
One of the reasons, I’m excited about our strategy going forward is it is multidimensional. We’re not just serving the same fanbase with the same creative vision, we’re trying to expand it. Not every fan has to love every piece of what we’re doing, but we’re putting out more tentacles to be able to reach people with different stories on different platforms, so there isn’t fatigue. It’s not just the same cadence.
We’re going to mix things up. We’ll have a slate of DC movies but it will be richer and more multi-dimensional with a broader array of characters…There would be fatigue if we stayed on a more singular path, but because we are broadening, we’ll have much more potential to grow the franchise across various demos and various types of fans.
Among DCEU’s plans are James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and its Peacemaker spin-off, as well as sequels for Wonder Woman, Shazam, and the Black Adam movie.
Also, Promising Young Woman writer/director Emerald Fennell has been tapped to write a planned movie on magical heroine Zatanna.
While the “Snyderverse” may not be canon, the future of the DCEU looks to be expanding in new ways.
Justice League the Snyder Cut now streaming on HBO Max.