At This Point, What Does ‘Restore The Snyderverse’ Even Mean?

This week, it was confirmed that WB and Discovery are merging, and that announcement brought, what else, a legion of Zack Snyder fans into the replies on social media claiming that the key to success for the merged company was to #RestoretheSnyderverse.

#RestoretheSnyderverse has been the replacement hashtag for #ReleasetheSnyderCut once the Snyder Cut of Justice League…was actually released by Warner Bros, giving fans and Snyder himself exactly what they wanted after years of rallying. But now the movement wants more, only now what they’re asking for makes a lot less sense with the current state of WB, DC and Snyder and his original cast themselves.

Believe me, you have my full support that what WB did with Justice League, replacing Zack Snyder with Joss Whedon after his family tragedy and butchering that film, was terrible. There also seems to be real mismanagement behind the scenes with certain DC execs and of course Whedon himself and his treatment of the cast on set. I was happy to see the Snyder cut released and agree that it was miles better than the original Whedon-tainted release.

That said, come on. Where does this end?

Searching for what Snyder devotees are actually demanding now, there are a few different things.

Release The Ayer Cut – This is a spin-off movement of the Snyder Cut, where there’s an idea, supported by David Ayer himself, that there is a non-WB corrupted version of the original Suicide Squad, the worst reviewed DCEU movie, that’s much better than what was released. But it is A) hard to believe that reshuffling that film would yield similar results to what we saw with Justice League and B) we literally just got a Suicide Squad sequel that redeemed that concept and most of those characters thanks to James Gunn (with Gunn now being a favorite villain among Snyder fans, as he seems like DC’s new golden boy).

The Batfleck Movie – Once upon a time there were plans for Ben Affleck to get his own standalone Batman movie, but that never happened and instead we got the Robert Pattinson non-DCEU film instead. I’ve seen even Snyder fans admit that that film is good, and it’s unclear what real purpose there would be returning to Ben Affleck’s Batman to have parallel live action Batman tracks running, especially since it’s clear Pattinson is getting a sequel and spin-offs on HBO. And Ben Affleck is doing fine! He’s about to marry Jennifer Lopez, just starred in the critically acclaimed Last Duel and has a bunch of directing projects booked. Affleck is moving on, even if fans won’t.

Man of Steel 2 – I’m not opposed to this. I think Man of Steel is chronically underrated and yes, Henry Cavill has expressed interest in playing Superman some more. That said, like Affleck, Cavill is doing great, booked for what is likely to be five seasons of The Witcher on Netflix and about five more movies on deck.

Justice League 2 – Again, it’s hard to picture this with the cast scattered as they are. Ben Affleck and his Batman have moved on. Cavill could return but is busy with tons of other projects. Ray Fisher and WB fell out and it seems unlikely we’ll ever see Cyborg again. Ezra Miller is probably done as The Flash after their recent arrest and even their solo film is in question now. That leaves Aquaman, who is getting a sequel soon, and Wonder Woman 3 in the eventual future. I don’t know how you “reassemble” based on the state of a cast like that.

And then there’s Snyder himself. Like Cavill, like Affleck, Zack Snyder is doing great! Post-Justice League, Snyder went on to do Army of the Dead for Netflix, which was a hit, and it already got a spin-off prequel, Army of Thieves, which also did well. Snyder is currently assembling a truly massive cast for Rebel Moon, a science fiction project that Netflix seems to have given him a huge budget for. It’s even let him reunite with Ray Fisher.

In short, if you care about the fates of the cast members and Snyder himself who were slighted when all the Justice League drama went down, they’re all doing fine. Fantastic, even. The idea that Snyder needs to return to steer DC’s ship for the next decade does not seem like something that’s remotely plausible (given all that happened, why would Snyder even want to work that closely with WB and DC again?). The central DCEU may be splintering, but that’s giving us new things like The Batman which is working out great.

I know this won’t end. I know that writing this will probably get me yelled at, which is funny because I legitimately like Snyder and most of his DC work. But I think it’s okay to let him and his cast move on, and it feels like fans want them back more than even they care about returning, regardless of what WB is doing.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.