Water is wet. Fire is hot. Darryn has the worst taste in food. Sometimes we all need to be reminded of the obvious. And that sentiment apparently holds true for Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The long-awaited (and just plain long) “Snyder Cut” of the failed 2017 DC Comics blockbuster will be released on HBO Max sometime next year finally giving us the filmmaker’s original vision before personal tragedy and studio intervention resulted in the film being changed massively.
Since it’s initial theatrical release though, the rest of the DC Extended Universe has moved on quite a bit with Aquaman, Shazam!, and Birds of Prey doing their own thing, while Ben Affleck has called it quits as Batman. So how will Snyder’s Justice League line up with that? Or maybe, like some fans were hoping, the new version of the film will be used to retcon Justice League back into the DCEU’s timeline and make it the new canon?
Well, nope. As Snyder explained to Beyond The Trailer (via Cinemablend), the obvious answer was the correct one – his Justice League is off doing its own thing.
For me, where the movie falls, it really starts to represent its own path. It’s kind of separate now from what I would say the DC cinematic universe [is] in continuity. I think it’s divergent, in that way. And I think that’s a good thing.
As Snyder continued, he explained how having this film be “divergent” ties into the idea of a multiverse – something which current rumours suggest will be central to WB’s plans for the DCEU. This will be “What if?” timeline of his time on the franchise, peeling off to the side.
The power of DC, and one of its cool strengths, is the sort of multiverse concept … They also put filmmaker’s first and they say, ‘We want to hear your individual voices. Take these characters and do a run. Show us what you would do.’ In the great tradition of comic book writing, and runs that have been done with all of these amazing characters. … And so, for me, I think Justice League, I’ve heard someone say, ‘Oh, you’re entering the Snyderverse now.’ And frankly, this notion that, what you will see in Justice League, Batman v Superman and in Man of Steel, there’s continuity across those three movies. They are really, because I made them, that’s my main focus is to satisfy that narrative structure [and] continue that story.
WB has previously said no sequels are on the cards for Justice League after its HBO Max release, but I can guarantee that tune may change if the film makes a big enough splash next year. At the very least, we may get a Snyderverse of animated movies continuing the story the filmmaker wanted to tell.
We’ll know more about Zack Snyder’s Justice League in exactly a month’s time as it will be one of the headline acts at the DC FanDome, DC Comics’ inaugural online comic book convention. The DC FanDome is a free global event that runs from 24 hrs starting at 10am PDT (so 19:00 South African time) on 22 August 2020.
Last Updated: August 17, 2020
