Snyder’s Justice League Plans Were Derailed By The Avengers’ Success

The future of the Justice League on the big screen is unknown after the departure of Zack Snyder and subsequent failure of his (significantly and fundamentally altered) Justice League movie, and the whole situation can trace its roots back to the success of The Avengers. The DCEU is known for its struggles the past few years, and while the blame for that failure has been attributed to a number of different causes of individuals the changing landscape of the superhero and blockbuster movie market hasn’t gotten as much attention.

What Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder set out to accomplish with their Superman reboot in 2010 was fundamentally different from what Marvel Studios was doing with their own properties, and the environment Man of Steel and subsequent DCEU films were released in was a completely different paradigm than the one in which they went into production.

Related: Justice League: Every Confirmed Change to Zack Snyder’s Version

At the turn of the century, Hollywood was beginning to crank out comic book movies covering myriad tones. There were the more relatively serious X-Men Movies, the quirky but dramatic Raimi Spider-Man movies, corny Fantastic Four, fantastical Hellboy from Guillermo del Toro, the more mature V For Vendetta from The Wachowskis and Watchmen from Zack Snyder, the hyper-violent and adult Sin City from Robert Rodriguez, and the grounded and cinematic Dark Knight trilogy from Christopher Nolan. But when Marvel arrived and proved these movies could exist in a larger interconnected universe that appealed to all ages and set box office records, much of the oxygen got sucked out of the room, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe became the franchise to emulate, ultimately signing the death warrant for Zack Snyder’s DCEU.

• This Page: How The Dark Knight Trilogy Inspired The DCEU
• Page 2: Marvel’s True Impact on the DCEU

How The Dark Knight Trilogy Inspired The DCEU

The plans for a Superman series were spearheaded by Christopher Nolan during the production of The Dark Knight Rises. The Dark Knight trilogy had been such a huge success, revolutionizing the comic book movie genre, so Nolan and David Goyer set out to explore the character of Superman in a similar manner to what they had done with Batman. The difference was the same grounded approach wouldn’t work since Superman’s powers make him a more fantastical character. In order to translate this into live-action, they brought aboard Zack Snyder.

During this time, Zack Snyder developed a plan for what we now know would have been a 5-part Superman story. Snyder has never explicitly spoken about the details this plan on the record – other than confirming that it was supposed to be a self-contained story like The Dark Knight – but he did explain his approach to developing a fully realized DC universe and how Superman needs to be at the center of that story.

Related: What Was Zack Snyder’s Original 5 Movie DCEU Plan?

At this time, The Avengers had not yet become the benchmark for cinematic universes. Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was still seen as the gold standard, so the idea of individually establishing multiple disparate sub-franchises and eventually bringing them together in a team-up wasn’t an expectation of fans or critics. In fact, the standard for ensemble movies was to introduce all the characters in a single story, and there was no reason to argue any other way was superior. The Lord of the Rings trilogy told a sprawling, massive, epic story featuring a team of heroes much bigger than the Avengers, and nobody ever questioned if stand-alone movies for Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, Gilmi, Boromir, or the Hobbits were even necessary.

In an interview leading up to Man of Steel, Snyder explicitly addressed this question when asked about plans for a potential Justice League movie.

“I’ve said that Justice League is a top-down affair in my opinion. There’s two things you’ve got to do. One, you have to get Superman’s house in order. And two, you have to look at the rest of the DC universe. What I try to do with this movie is imply that there are other DC characters in this world. We don’t see them, but there’s evidence that they’re out there. So, just like you top-down Superman, you have to sort of top-down the rest of the DC characters. Not to say that they need their own movies or anything, perse, like, say the Marvel model, but – by the way I’m also not ruling that out – but I do think there’s an opportunity to think about how you might introduce other DC characters and whether that’s a Justice League movie, or whether that’s just a way of expanding Superman’s universe, those are things that I think – that’s the next conversation I think, for me.”

Over the years, a narrative would form that DC was rushing into a Justice League movie without establishing all the members through solo movies, but it sounds like Snyder always intended to either bring them in through Superman’s story, like he ultimately did with Batman and Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, or introduce them in a Justice League movie, like he did with Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg (although all 3 also got brief cameos in Batman v Superman).

Related: The DCEU Ruined Batman And Superman (But It’s Not Zack Snyder’s Fault)

While the more serious and introspective approach that led to the success of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy originally inspired the approach to Man of Steel and the 5-part plan Zack Snyder would spin out of it, things started to shift after the arrival of The Avengers. For years, the buzzword for directors describing their next movie was to compare it to The Dark Knight, but now the objective had shifted and everyone wanted to build universes like The Avengers. With a massive box office take, high critical praise, and nearly endless sequel opportunity (unlike The Dark Knight trilogy, which was already wrapped up conclusively), Hollywood had a new goalpost, and fans wanted all their favorite properties to get the MCU treatment.

Page 2: Marvel’s True Impact on the DCEU

The Marvel Effect Changed Everything

Warner Bros. has traditionally been a more filmmaker-driven studio, and that model had worked out just fine for Nolan and Batman, so it only made sense to continue down that path with Snyder and Superman. Man of Steel grossed $277 million more than their previous Superman attempt, Superman Returns, an increase of about 70% on a similar budget. The movie was polarizing but saw a generally positive reaction, so Warner Bros. decided to move forward with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, part 2 of what had become a 5-movie Superman plan for Zack Snyder.

Between the release of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Marvel Studios would release 6 more movies: Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man, all of which all saw positive critical receptions and impressive box office takes. While Zack Snyder had been mostly allowed to retain his creative control with Batman v Superman, the success of the MCU understandably caught the eye of Warner Bros. executives.

Related: Justice League: Zack Snyder’s Invasion Flashback Had Darkseid vs Ares

Snyder had been moving forward with his plan, albeit with some pressure from DC executives to give Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice some more connective tissue ahead of Justice League, but Warner Bros. had also begun development on a number of spin-off movies branching out of Snyder’s core story in a way that had begun to resemble Marvel’s structure.

These new movies embraced what Snyder was doing, he was even involved in their production, contributing story to Wonder Woman, shooting a Flash cameo for Suicide Squad, and more, but now that the universe was expanding, the reception of Snyder’s movies was seen more important than ever. Justice League was no longer just the 3rd movie in Zack Snyder’s Superman arc, but also the entry-point for Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman, who all had solo movies in the works that could be impacted by another divisive movie.

The initial appeal of Snyder’s approach – a contained Superman arc with a clear beginning, middle, and (most importantly) an end, featuring secondary roles for the rest of the Justice League – was now taking a backseat to the need for Justice League to serve the rest of the expanding DCEU. When Snyder’s Justice League was shaping up to be another Batman v Superman, Warner Bros. and DC leadership decided it was time to intervene to make Justice League more universally appealing like Marvel.

The Destruction of Justice League and Snyder’s DCEU

Changes had already been made in the fallout of Batman v Superman, but now a writer’s room, including Joss Whedon, who brought the Avengers to life for Marvel, had been formed and was requesting alternate versions of nearly every scene. Snyder was initially working to find compromise with all the requested changes, but a family tragedy and ever-mounting pressure from Warner Bros. became too much to handle, and he was pushed off the movie deep into post-production. Since he had already been at work on the project, Joss Whedon stepped up to the director’s chair, and, uninhibited by Snyder’s absence, Warner Bros. requested weeks of reshoots to completely reshape the movie’s tone and plot.

Related: Darkseid’s Arc in Zack Snyder’s Justice League Was WAY Bigger Than We Thought

The resulting film was a Frankenstein project that was seemingly an attempt to retrofit Snyder’s movie into an Avengers tone, but it lacked but the fun and humor of fans The Avengers look for and the impressive visuals and more serious story fans of Snyder’s previous DC movies wanted. It got mediocre reviews and didn’t even crack $100 million at the box office in its opening weekend, becoming the lowest grossing DCEU movie so far.

Ever since Justice League‘s release, some fans have been campaigning for a “Snyder Cut” of the film. A significant amount of post-production work was completed and the movie could still one day be finished for release, the universe will never be the same, and Zack Snyder’s 5-part Superman story won’t be completed as intended. Justice League was poised to be the first major introduction of Darkseid and continue the secondary plot of the Knightmare future and had significantly different arcs for certain characters, especially Cyborg and Superman, all of which would be missing from a potential sequel, and now both Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck are doubtful to return to their roles. Even in the unlikely scenario that Snyder is invited to return to the director’s chair (and accepts), nearly everything he spent 7 years building for the franchise has been ruined. He couldn’t just pick up where he left off, and anything he did produce would surely be compromised by the baggage created by the failure of Justice League.

Snyder’s DCEU movies certainly weren’t for everyone, there’s no arguing that. Divisive reviews and years of debates prove they were contentious, but they had a loyal fanbase and were ultimately financially successful, even if they fell short of box office expectations. Instead of embracing that and completing Snyder’s tenure in the DCEU before changing course more naturally or with a proper reboot,Warner Bros. chased after the success of the MCU, ruining Justice League, failing at the box office, losing its core fanbase, driving away two lead actors, and leaving the DCEU in a state of uncertainty.

The universe is finally building confidence again with a number of good-looking solo movies on the way, but the future of the Justice League, if there is one, is more uncertain than ever, leaving behind a half-finished story that will likely never see it’s proper conclusion.

MORE: Zack Snyder’s Cut Of Justice League Was More Complete Than You Realize