DC Has No Plans To Continue SnyderVerse, Says Jim Lee

DC Chief Creative Officer-Publisher Jim Lee says the DC Extended Universe has no plans to continue the SnyderVerse. After Christopher Nolan revitalized Batman on the big screen with his Dark Knight trilogy, Warner Bros. turned to director Zack Snyder to do the same with Superman. The success of 2013’s Man of Steel helped position Snyder as the visionary who would spearhead Warner Bros.’ shared superhero universe the DCEU; fans often refer to Snyder’s contributions as the SnyderVerse, which is comprised of parts from the director’s original 5-movie plan for the franchise.

Unfortunately, 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was critically panned and, in 2017, Snyder was forced to leave Justice League’s production following a family tragedy. Then, the overwhelmingly influential #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign resulted in Snyder’s Justice League debuting on HBO Max. Despite the 4-hour cut’s success, WB and DC Films have chosen to abandon the SnyderVerse and rework the DCEU with titles like The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, and the upcoming Black Adam. The Flash film (Ezra Miller controversy aside) is even poised to shelve the SnyderVerse timeline while benching Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman in favor of Michael Keaton, Batgirl, and Supergirl (not to mention Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader, who stands apart from the DCEU).

At San Diego Comic-Con (via @themarvelmaniac), Jim Lee talked about being involved with many of the DCEU’s films. When asked by a fan in the audience if he’s working on anything with Snyder, Lee revealed there are currently no plans to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse. Read the full quote below:

“You know what’s amazing, is we spent two years in lockdown, and here we are back at a convention, celebrating the artform, feeling good. I work on the projects that are in development, right? I think the Snyder Cut was Zack’s vision realized, and it was a really satisfying story told, but there’s no plans for additional work on that material. I was happy to help contribute to the pitch for the other stuff, and it kind of was fun to see that stuff get out there because I did that years ago. I actually thought it had been erased, but they had kept it in storage.”

The release of Snyder’s Justice League was treated as the culmination of the story that began in Man of Steel and simultaneously bolstered HBO Max subscribers. Lee’s comments aren’t surprising as WB/DC Films have distanced themselves from Snyder at every turn, and contention has far from been mitigated. This week, Rolling Stone published a perplexing article stating that 13 percent of the accounts fueling Justice League’s Snyder Cut campaign were fake. The average number of fake accounts/bots associated with a trending topic is around 3 to 5 percent. Still, #ReleaseTheSnyderCut was far from an average campaign, and this confirms that 87 percent of accounts were valid, which is presumably a staggering number of fans. With Snyder and WB continuing to generate negative press, it’s unlikely reconciliation is something either party is interested in.

However, the SnyderVerse characters still have a future in the DCEU. Not only are Jason Momoa and Gal Gadot appearing in sequels to Aquaman and Wonder Woman, respectively, but DC fans are also currently ecstatic about Henry Cavill’s rumored return as Superman. Following reports that Superman would be rebooted and/or make a cameo appearance in Black Adam, a new rumor suggests Cavill will make a DC-related appearance at Comic-Con this weekend. That said, even if Cavill takes his cape out of the closet for Man of Steel 2, Snyder’s future is with Netflix on the Army of the Dead universe and his upcoming sci-fi film, Rebel Moon.