It has been a month since DC fans were finally able to watch the much-awaited Zack Snyder’s Justice League. It was the perfect ending to the years of campaigning for the release of the Snyder Cut, with the film receiving rave reviews. So much so that since its release, fans have been demanding that Warner Bros. restore the SnyderVerse, the version of the DC Extended Universe that was penned by Snyder. However, despite the film’s success, it seems unlikely that the entertainment conglomerate will accept their demands.
The hashtag #RestoreTheSnyderVerse has been used on Twitter more than 1.5 million times, and its popularity is growing every day. Some Justice League actors have also offered their support to the fan campaign, including Ray Fisher, who plays Cyborg, Joe Manganiello, who plays Deathstroke, and Ray Porter, who plays the film's villain Darkseid. But, if the executives at Warner Bros. were to succumb to the pressure and bring Snyder back to create the sequels, it could potentially create a vicious cycle for the studio, with fans then believing that they can demand anything. This one reason is why they may never agree to restore the SnyderVerse.
At this point, anyone who has been paying attention to the whole Snyder Cut saga is aware of how the film came to fruition. Snyder launched the DCEU in 2013 with Man of Steel, which was followed by 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The latter film did not receive great reviews, which led to Warner Bros. urging Snyder to take a lighter approach when he started working on Justice League. They weren’t too happy with the dark tones of the previous two films that Snyder had worked on, and also insisted that the director reduce the runtime of the film.
When Snyder had to leave the project during production, The Avengers director Joss Whedon was brought on board to complete the film. Several scenes were deleted from Snyder’s cut of the movie, including the backstories of some of the main characters like Cyborg, the Flash, and Aquaman. Several reshoots were ordered, which led to Henry Cavill’s mustache-free face becoming a meme for years. The final product that was released in theaters in 2017 was considered a failure by fans of the DCEU, with many of them bombarding the studio with negative reviews. Within days of the release of Justice League, a fan campaign, #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, was launched, which is when things became really interesting.
While Snyder’s previous movie had not received high praise, fans were suddenly demanding that the studio release the director’s version of the movie. Fans took to multiple social media channels to voice their opinion and discuss theories of what Snyder’s vision of the film would have looked like. Some avid fans even scoured the internet to find some kind of evidence that Snyder’s original version of Justice League wasn’t entirely lost and the footage had been retained. The campaigning became serious when several fans turned up outside the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank offices in California rallying for the director’s cut of the film. At one point, Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck also supported the campaign.
One might think that a media giant like Warner Bros. does not need to cave to fans’ demands, but much to everyone’s surprise, the studio finally reached out to Snyder and officially gave the green light for the Snyder Cut on May 20, 2020. Zack Snyder’s Justice League was to become a reality, a victory for both fans and the director himself. However, it is important to note that by doing so, Warner Bros. took a huge gamble by allowing the film to release on HBO Max, which is more reason for them to put an end to fans’ demands before it becomes a habit.
While Zack Snyder’s Justice League is still streaming on HBO Max, the film’s release cost Warner Bros. around $70 million. Most of the scenes were already shot before Snyder left the project, but a lot of extensive post-production tools and visual effects were used to adjust all the footage that Snyder had kept. While Snyder did not get paid to work on the re-edited version of the DC superhero film, a new scene involving Jared Leto’s Joker had to be shot, which required some of the other Justice League actors to return to set. So, fans may have gotten what they wanted, but apart from it being a risk for the studio, it also ended up being an expensive project.
If Warner Bros. were to agree to restoring the SnyderVerse, not only would it mean opening Pandora's box, with fans believing they could ask anything of the studio moving forward, it would also seem as if they were admitting that they were wrong. While the Snyder Cut is a huge improvement on the theatrical cut of Justice League, allowing the SnyderVerse to continue would negate Whedon’s input on the DCEU. And though fans would be happy to see his version of the film disappear into the great void, WarnerMedia, the parent company of Warner Bros., would come out looking like the villain that they have tried so hard to avoid being.
With constant controversy surrounding the project, especially since Fisher accused Whedon and several DC executives of inappropriate and discriminatory behavior, WarnerMedia has stood by them with claims of launching an investigation into the matter and taking the necessary measures to resolve the complaint. So, even though they approved of the Snyder Cut’s release, the plan might just have backfired, with the film receiving high praise from fans. If the film hadn’t been received as well as it has been, fans would have been silenced and everyone at Warner Bros. would have moved on with their lives.
Before the film’s release, there were several rumors that it was “unwatchable.” Additionally, a week before its premiere, there was an accidental leak on HBO Max, with viewers being able to access Zack Snyder’s Justice League when they tried to watch Warner Group’s Tom and Jerry. At the time, fans were convinced that the leak was more intentional than accidental, and much to Warner Bros. dismay, the Snyder Cut lived up to the hype and expectations of its fans.
However, it all comes down to one fact alone - fans do not run things in the film business. Not entirely at least. A film’s success is obviously based on the viewership and fan base, but they cannot dictate what a studio should or should not produce. While it makes sense for Warner Bros. to restore the SnyderVerse, giving fans the power to change the entire course of the DCEU and future film projects is something that wouldn’t necessarily work in their favor moving forward.
Three years ago, fans wanted the release of the Snyder Cut, today it's renewing an entire universe created by the director. If the studio keeps agreeing to fans’ demands, there will be no end to them, and while it is important to please the viewers, this dilemma does not have an obvious solution. It seems likely that the SnyderVerse will become a distant memory.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is streaming on HBO Max.