Posted in: HBO, Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: hbo max, movies, restorethesnyderverse, Warner Bros, zack snyder's justice league

DC and Warner Bros. Have No Intentions to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse

In a move that makes Zack Snyder look like a bit of a jerk, the thing that everyone has been saying for months has been said again; Warner Bros. has no intention to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse. We have known since September that Warner Bros. has been very clear that they don't have any intention of bringing back Snyder's version of the DC Universe. They gave him the freedom, and $70M, to end his cut on his own terms, with multiple people saying that this is it. Snyder took that freedom and $70M and decided to end the movie on a massive cliffhanger when no one in upper management wants to make more of these movies, which was kind of a dick move to the fans that got Snyder said freedom and $70M. Justice League is a movie that went over budget and underperformed at the box office during round one only to have an additional $70M, not including any marketing for Zack Snyder's Justice League, thrown at it for the HBO Max release. If there was any profit made here was minimal at best. So it stands to reason that everyone wants to move on, and according to WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff in a new interview with Variety, they have no plans to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse.

I appreciate that they love Zack's work and we are very thankful for his many contributions to DC. We're just so happy that he could bring his cut of the "Justice League" to life because that wasn't in the plan until about a year ago. With that comes the completion of his trilogy. We're very happy we've done this, but we're very excited about the plans we have for all the multi-dimensional DC characters that are being developed right now.

Sarnoff went on to say that "we won't be developing David Ayer's cut" of Suicide Squad, which became another point that DC fans were trying to make happen online. It very much sounds like DC and Warner Bros. is ready to move on from the Snyder side of the Universe. When asked about the plans for the DC Universe going forward, Sarnoff talked about how "siloed" the DC universe was before she came on, and she wants to make it bigger and across multiple platforms.

We've got an incredible group of creators — television series creators, Max series creators, feature film creators — who are basically broadening the base of the talent that we work with on DC because we're so excited about the potential to build out the DC multiverse. It's one of the reasons why I was hired almost two years ago. The before-and-after was it was a very siloed organization with no connectivity between the businesses. DC was being developed, but in a kind of monolithic way in each division. My mantra coming in was to make it bigger and broader and we really want to surprise and delight the fans with more connective tissue across the various media and platforms. I'm talking movies, HBO Max, television and our games division.

Sarnoff also spoke about how DC and Warner Bros. are looking to bring in lots of different storytellers and characters going forward with an emphasis on diversity.

It's super important to me and it's in line with what we want to do. We want to branch out and let creators interpret parts of the universe in unique and special ways. Ta-Nehisi working on Superman is incredibly exciting, I can't wait to see what he comes up with, and [director] Andy Muschietti on "The Flash" or Patty Jenkins. Matt Reeves just finished filming "The Batman" against the odds of COVID. We're so excited to finish that movie and have people see it, because Matt's take on Batman is different than other takes. Even familiar characters have lots of possibilities.

Finally, Saroff condemned the actions of the toxic side of the Snyder Cut fanbase, saying that they are not tolerating that sort of behavior and they want the DC fandom to be positive.

We're not tolerating any of that. That behavior is reprehensible no matter what franchise you're talking about or what business you're talking about. It's completely unacceptable. I'm very disappointed in the fans that have chosen to go to that negative place with regard to DC, with regard to some of our executives. It's just disappointing because we want this to be a safe place to be. We want DC to be a fandom that feels safe and inclusive. We want people to be able to speak up for the things they love, but we don't want it to be a culture of cancelling things that any small faction isn't happy with. We are not about that. We are about positivity and celebration.

DC and Warner Bros. sound like they have made the decision to move on from the Snyder side of the DC Universe, and they have been saying this for several months now, so it shouldn't be a surprise. For Snyder to know that and to still end Zack Snyder's Justice League on a cliffhanger but also to make the only new footage he shot to be teasing a movie no one wants to make? It's a dick move, and there isn't any getting around it. Warner Bros. listened once, but it sounds like no one should expect their hashtags to work a second time.

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