Does anyone remember the last thing Zack Snyder was working on? You can if you try, but the odds are you don't remember... because the DC Snyderverse won't end. It keeps popping up over, and over, and over again. The director himself is screening three of the films - Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition, and Zack Snyder's Justice League - over April 28-30 to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (if you need help, more information on the AFSP can be found here, and in Canada here). He's done other films, and he's working on other films, but all the focus invariably returns to his divisive work with the DCEU. In order to grow as a director, in order to truly tell new stories, Zack Snyder has to move on.
What Movies Did Zack Snyder Make Before the DCEU?
Snyder cut his directorial teeth with commercials and music videos, including Lizzy Borden's "Love is a Crime" and ZZ Top's "World of Swirl", before seemingly coming out of nowhere to direct 2004's Dawn of the Dead, a remake of George A. Romero's 1978 horror film. The film was a success, both at the box office and with movie critics, and while not as divisive as his later works, it still proved to be polarizing, with some critics hailing the spectacle of it while others railed against its gore and lack of satire. (Interestingly, James Gunn was the writer of Dawn of the Dead.) Snyder's next feature, 300, was more indicative of his polarizing style, with speed ramping and snap zooms utilized to tell the story of the Battle of Thermopylae. The brazen director would then tackle a film adaptation of Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore's "unfilmable" graphic novel Watchmen, proof positive that Snyder had the chops to bring comic book adaptations to stirring life.
DC Gave Zack Snyder the Reins - But Tragedy Cut It Short
2013's Man of Steel, a reboot of the Superman franchise, kicked off what would become the Snyderverse. It was a darker take on the hero, certainly much more so than the Christopher Reeve era, with fans and critics alike divided between appreciating the high-energy action sequences that had come to be associated with Snyder and the changes made to the Superman canon (especially the killing of Michael Shannon's General Zod). Nevertheless, it was enough for WB to entrust the DC properties to the director, with Snyder's hand in directing and/or producing the DCEU films to follow, including eventual plans for three Justice League films in total. Unfortunately, after losing his daughter to suicide, Snyder pulled out of Justice League, leaving post-production duties and reshoots to Joss Whedon.
#ReleaseTheSnyderCut Stalled Zack Snyder
Whedon's finished product was underwhelming, to say the least, seen as a critical and commercial dud despite its $657.9 million dollar worldwide gross. Within days of the movie's premiere, fans began petitioning for the "Snyder cut" to be released, despite no evidence to suggest one even existed. But these fans grew more intense with their demands for the Snyder cut - again, without any acknowledgment of its existence - resulting in WB/DC being cast as an evil corporation that was denying them the footage they wanted to see. The online abuse of WB executives, film critics, and others who were perceived to stand in the way became more and more toxic.
It's here, in 2019, where Snyder arguably stalls his own career, stoking the flames of the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement by posting Justice League-related content on Vero. Soon, the cast would join Snyder in pushing for the Snyder cut to be released. Finally, in 2020, at a virtual Man of Steel watch party, Snyder announces that he will be completing work on his director's cut of the film to be released on HBO Max. Snyder would continue to release teasers and footage, right up to the March 2021 release of the four-hour cut on the streaming service. This means that for eight straight years, Snyder had worked on little else but Justice League content.
Fans Need to Let Zack Snyder Move on From the DCEU
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Since the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League, Snyder has only had two projects of note: the well-received Army of the Dead, the 2021 Netflix film that saw Snyder return to his Dawn of the Dead days, and the upcoming Rebel Moon, borne out of a failed pitch for a Star Wars film. Still, events like the April fundraiser, despite its good intentions, keep Snyder from moving on from the Snyderverse. It would be unfair, however, to place the blame solely on the director, given how fans refuse to let the Snyderverse end themselves, with the latest movement, #sellthesnyderversetonetflix, an attempt to keep the director's vision alive on the streaming service. It's unlikely to end any time soon, even as new DCU head Gunn himself has admitted that he and Snyder have had positive discussions. He also said that Netflix has shown no interest, and called out Snyder fans for not giving Snyder the freedom to create new worlds.
Ultimately, it falls on Snyder himself to definitively move on from his DCEU works, give his fans a gentle "thanks, but no thanks," and outright kill talk of any future Snyderverse-related ventures. Until he does so, the fans that successfully pushed for the Snyder cut of Justice League (which only provoked further action, not dampen the fervor with a proverbial bone to sate the masses) will continue to hound Snyder and the new DCU personnel into moving forward with a vision that is no longer readily available to do anything more with. It's best for getting the fan base on board with the new direction that DC and Warner Bros. are trying to establish - love it or hate it, Gunn and Peter Safran deserve the same chance that Snyder's tenure was afforded. It's best for Snyder, a director that has proven time and again that he is a visionary talent capable of much more than what he's been pigeonholed into. And it's best for us, the moviegoers, who stand to be rewarded with works of great creativity and imagination, with characters that have engaged us for decades and with new worlds yet to be explored.