Zack Snyder Returns to Warner Bros. Lot Years After DCEU Exit
“Hanging out with a bunch of amazing people today down at the WB,” director Zack Snyder posted on social media last week along with a photo of himself on the Warner Bros. lot. The Matthew Hall song “Home” played over the post.
The post certainly piqued people’s curiosity – and perhaps stoked the hopes of those fans who support #RestoreTheSnyderVerse – about why he was there considering Snyder had a bitter falling out with the studio in 2017 over Justice League, a notoriously troubled production that ended the filmmaker’s tenure as the architect of the now defunct DCEU.
As recently as 2021, the Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director claimed Warner Bros. was “aggressively anti-Snyder,” saying the studio had not shown any interest in doing anything further with the SnyderVerse.
Snyder also said he was worried Warners would retaliate against him if he supported his “Release the Snyder Cut” fans (some online fervor, though, was reportedly driven by fake accounts).
Zack Snyder’s Justice League, aka The Snyder Cut, was finally released on HBO in 2021. In his Snyder Cut review, IGN’s Tom Jorgensen hailed the movie as “a surprise vindication for the director and the fans that believed in his vision.”
So what was Zack Snyder doing on the Warners lot last week?
According to Page Six Hollywood, Snyder was there to host a staff screening of the studio’s 1981 Arthurian classic Excalibur, which fans will remember was playing at the theater the night Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered in Batman v Superman.
The site claims “Snyder received a ‘hero’s welcome’ at the event, spies said, as a full house of motion picture group employees and guests converged, some even standing for a Q&A between the Man of Steel director and studio bosses Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy.”
Page Six Hollywood says “Snyder’s inclusion certainly raised eyebrows, even if nearly all of the executives and creatives he battled to bring his 242-minute Zack Snyder’s Justice League to the screen are long gone (several of whom secured their own related settlements). ‘What are Mike and Pam thinking?’ asked one current executive who lived through the tumultuous period when Snyder’s fans harangued and targeted the studio.”
The site speculates that Snyder’s return to the lot could also suggest Warners might be looking to get back into business with him, possibly distributing his planned remake of Escape From New York.
Snyder has previously said he would only ever make another DC film if it were an adaptation of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.
After the Justice League debacle – which saw Joss Whedon come in to reshoot and rework the entire superhero movie – Snyder went to Netflix where he tried to launch his own multimedia franchise, Rebel Moon, but the streamer later quietly dropped plans to move forward with any other Snyder projects. Snyder also directed the movie Army of the Dead and created the adult animated series Twilight of the Gods for Netflix.