Zack Snyder fans are going wild after the filmmaker posted a mysterious video with a message from Darkseid, one of the biggest villains in the DC universe. The video is a clear nod to the Snyderverse, as fans refer to the interconnected cinematic universe Snyder planned at the inception of the now-defunct DC Extended Universe.
The video, posted on Twitter, shows a satellite finding a mysterious message from Darkseid that asks fans to save the date from April 28 to April 30. There’s no further information about what the video is talking about, but it’s hard not to think about the Snyderverse. After the success of 2013’s Man of Steel, Snyder was given the keys to the realm and free reign to develop the DCEU. However, after 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice failed to meet expectations, Snyder’s Justice League got stuck in development hell until the filmmaker had to step down due to family matters. Snyder was replaced by Joss Whedon, who made heavy changes to the previous filmmaker’s script. As a result, 2017’s Justice League was utterly despised by fans, who started an online campaign asking Warner Bros. to restore Snyder's version. That happened in 2021 when the company released Snyder’s four-hour-long black-and-white cut, which surprisingly didn’t suck.
What could have been a happy end to a highly complex production story only fueled fans’ desire to restore the Snyderver and put the filmmaker back in control of DC live-action adaptations. That didn’t happen, as Warner Bros. Discovery named James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-head of DC Studios. And since Warner Bros. was reportedly distancing itself from Snyder even before announcing the new DCU continuity, no one could expect the Snyderverse actually to be restored. That is until Snyder released this mysterious video on Twitter.
In DC canon, Darkseid is an interplanetary conqueror who ravages worlds while searching for the Anti-Life Equation, a piece of knowledge that could give him control over life itself. The Equation is supposedly connected to Earth, which leads Darkseid to fight the Justice League on multiple occasions. Darkseid was behind the attacks in both versions of Justice League, and Synder intended to make a crossover trilogy to explore the villain’s threat. So, with such a mysterious video online, fans might wonder if Gunn and Safran are allowing Snyder to finish his story. And thanks to how the new DCU is organized, that might be possible.
The Elseworlds Strategy Can Bring the Snyderverse Back
Earlier this year, Gunn and Safran announced their ambitious plan to build an intertwined storyline spanning movies, TV shows, animated series, and even video games. During the announcement event, Gunn and Safran also underlined they would be using the Elseworlds comic book strategy to move forward with their cohesive universe while still allowing Matt Reeves’ The Batman franchise and Todd Phillips’ Joker storyline to keep being developed. The idea is that Gunn and Safran will make it clear to the public what’s canon in their DCU while still allowing talented filmmakers to pursue independent stories that’ll just be placed in different timelines.
With the Elseworlds strategy, Gunn and Safran could restore the Snydervese and just say it doesn’t matter to canon. So, Snyder could finish his story without messing with the interconnected storyline Gunn and Safran are currently trying to build. That’s a dangerous move, as the release of a new Justice League movie directed by Snyder might take the focus away from the new DCU. Then again, it would probably help to apease Snyder fans.
Of course, at this moment, everything is just speculation. Snyder could be teasing a comic book series since he’s also a prolific writer. Or maybe he has been summoned by Gunn and Safran to tackle an unannounced project inside the new DCU. We’ll know for sure come April.
We’ll keep an eye out for any further development, and we’ll report everything right here in Collider. Check out Snyder’s original tweet below.