For months, online speculation has circulated that Netflix would swoop into the Warner Bros. bidding war, take control of DC, and somehow resurrect Zack Snyder’s original failed superhero universe. It’s a dramatic idea, the kind of rumor that lights up social media and generates clicks. But it runs into one tiny problem: the same company supposedly planning a Snyder cinematic renaissance is also shutting down Snyder projects left and right. If anything, the pattern forming at Netflix looks far more like Zack Snyder being canceled than Zack Snyder being restored in any meaningful way.
Darkseid appears in Zack Snyder’s Justice League – HBO Max
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Over the past year, Netflix has quietly — and now publicly — backed away from multiple Snyder ventures after a series of costly cinematic failures. One project being shut down is unfortunate. Two is concerning. But this is a full cluster of stalls, rejections, and cancellations that paints a much different picture than fan hopes about a DC revival under new ownership.
A Domino Line of Cancelations
This most recent round of canceled Zack Snyder projects started when Netflix declined to fund the director’s untitled Los Angeles cop thriller. According to outside reporting, Snyder wanted around $100 million for the film, a number reportedly higher than what Netflix paid for either of the failed Rebel Moon installments. Dan Lin, the head of Netflix Film, is said to have countered with roughly $75–80 million, but Snyder refused.
REBEL MOON: (L-R) Sofia Boutella as Kora and Djimon Hounsou as Titus in Rebel Moon. Cr. Clay Enos/Netflix © 2023
Negotiations broke down, and the project collapsed. Without Netflix, Snyder shifted focus to the thriller The Last Photograph, now being produced elsewhere.
Then came something even more telling: Netflix canceling Twilight of the Gods, Snyder’s mythological animated series. Add that to the reported collapse of future Rebel Moon installments and the earlier shelving of the Army of the Dead expansions and the picture becomes stark. Every major Zack Snyder-backed initiative at Netflix has either stalled, been quietly dropped, or outright rejected and canceled.
But sure, they’re gonna let him run DC again…
The “Snyderverse Revival” Rumors Meet Reality
Now compare that to the online chatter claiming that if Netflix acquires Warner Bros. in the ongoing corporate sale, it would revive Snyder’s DC universe.
Henry Cavill as Superman in Man of Steel – HBO Max
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Setting aside the fact that no buyer — Netflix included — has publicly committed to anything of the sort, the narrative collapses under even mild scrutiny. What logic would compel a company actively distancing itself from Snyder to immediately hand him a billion-dollar superhero franchise that he already failed at establishing once?
Imagine firing a chef from your restaurant after he gave an entire dining room food poisoning and then hiring him back the next day to run the entire chain.
Ben Affleck as Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Warner Bros.
The numbers don’t add up. The behavior doesn’t align. The corporate trend points in the opposite direction.
Netflix may or may not secure Warner Bros., but if it does, the idea that the streamer would rush to rebuild the Snyderverse, a failure that made WBD turn to James Gunn of all people, is ludicrous.
A Fan Base That’s Loud—But Not Delivering Results
Snyder’s “passionate” (for lack of a more colorful tone…) following is well-known, but passion doesn’t equal performance. His supporters championed him through the long push for the Justice League director’s cut, and their online presence is undeniable. But streaming platforms measure success by measurable viewership, not volume of tweets.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 13: (EDITOR’S NOTE: Image has been digitally enhanced.) Zack Snyder attends the Netflix Premiere of Zack Snyder’s REBEL MOON – Part One: A Child of Fire at TCL Chinese Theatre on December 13, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Emilio Madrid/Getty Images for Netflix)
The reality is unavoidable: if Snyder’s Netflix projects had brought in massive numbers, none of these conversations would be happening. If his DC movies had succeeded at the box office then there never would have been a James Gunn Superman movie for audiences to fight over.
Budgets wouldn’t be questioned. New films wouldn’t be rejected. Animated series wouldn’t be shut down. Companies don’t abandon profitable brands — they expand them.
Which circles back to the rumor mill: if Netflix is in the process of reducing its Snyder footprint, then the belief that it would re-center the DC universe around him after acquiring Warner Bros. defies the streaming giant’s actual behavior.
Rotten Tomatoes Scores for Rebel Moon 2 — The Scargiver – Rotten Tomatoes
And before anyone flies into the comments to claim that Netflix canceled these Zack Snyder projects to make room for the Snyderverse to rise again, that is also an absolutely insane theory with no basis in reality. Netflix acquiring WBD is far from a done deal. Paramount and Comcast are both also vying for the studio, and Paramount is reportedly the front runner.
So to cancel project in active development because you might get your hands on DC characters sometime in the future after a sale is approved and federal regulators dissect any deal on the table makes NO SENSE!
Final Thoughts
When you look at corporate actions, not social media noise, a clear pattern emerges: Netflix is closing the door, not opening a new chapter. Snyder is moving on to smaller productions elsewhere.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 13: Zack Snyder attends the Netflix Premiere of Zack Snyder’s REBEL MOON – Part One: A Child of Fire at TCL Chinese Theatre on December 13, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix)
And if Netflix does win Warner Bros., the earliest indicators suggest Snyder’s DC revival is a fantasy — one that evaporates the moment you compare rumor to reality.
Why do you think these Zack Snyder movies were canceled? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
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or more speculation.
I watched Justice League for the first time. The “Snyder cut”, and oh boy did it suck. “I’m just a pretty Jewish boy” simped this simp-male gay character. I mean, the Hollywood pervs don’t even hide it. I dread to think what their “parties” are like. Anyhoo, after the cringe of that character, who was f****** awful, there was annoying Wonder Woman girl-boss, who seemed to be able to do anything, because magic. And, in general, it’s all just arbitrary magic. Magic happens, there are no rules to what magic works, and what does not. There’s nothing at stake. In fact, I wanted the bad guy, who was also depicted as a simp to some other bad guy, to win. Oh man, if this thing had “subverted expectations” and crushed the supposed “goodies”, permanently, with no way of any “multiverse” bollox resurrection, then I’d have given the movie 10/10 for making my day. But, alas, modern movies are made to irritate the likes of me. The fanbase.
SPOILER: Oh, and the girl boss was the one to finish off the bad guy. Yes, back then, political correctness was the bane of movies too. You have to go back 20 plus years for the movies to be mostly bearable, give or take a few noble exceptions up until around 2015. After that, the woke era blighted everything.
Does the word every have two, or three syllables?
three if you say it normally; two if you’re a barefoot hillbilly