Credit: DC / Warner Bros.Until recently, the idea that the Snyderverse might make a comeback seemed impossible. After all, James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Universe (DCU) officially launched last summer with Superman (2025) — also written and directed by Gunn. The new franchise replaces the now-defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU), but a lot has changed since then.
The DCU Has Struggled With Audiences From the Start
Gunn’s DCU-opener was hardly the box-office juggernaut that a film with a heavyweight brand like Superman should have been. $618.7 million worldwide is obviously a respectable figure, but with a bloated budget of $225 million, fans continue to question whether the film was a solid success. And while it received mostly positive reviews, it has its share of critics.
Related: How Henry Cavill’s ‘Man of Steel’ Trilogy Will Continue Alongside James Gunn’s DCU
One of the biggest criticisms is how it feels more like Guardians of the Galaxy than Superman. This is hardly surprising given the fact that Gunn is known for his ragtag-team-of-misfits approach to comic book movies, which have included all three Guardians (2014 — 2023) and The Suicide Squad (2021), as well as TV shows like Peacemaker (2022 — 2025).
Superman is no exception. Despite Clark Kent and his Kryptonian alias (David Corenswet) being front and center, the film is weighed down by supporting characters such as Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Michael Holt/Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Guy Gardner/Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), and Krypto the Dog.
Upcoming DCU Films Have Also Failed to Resonate
The next film on the DCU slate is Supergirl (2026) — which fans have also accused of looking like another Guardians film (Gunn himself has likened it to those films). The same can be said about Peacemaker Season 2 and the HBO animated series Creature Commandos, both of which have already expanded the DCU on the smaller screen.
With all that said, comparisons to Gunn’s previous unconventional-superhero family-inspired outings are just part of a bigger problem. The DCU might actually benefit from having such an identity, but other future projects like the body-horror Batman spinoff Clayface (2026) and HBO’s True Detective-inspired series Lanterns (2026) feel tonally off.
Related: How Henry Cavill’s ‘Man of Steel’ Trilogy Will Continue Alongside James Gunn’s DCU
In short, the new DCU is struggling to resonate with audiences, which is likely because of all the above coupled with “superhero fatigue” and the fact that erasing the previous timeline, the 10-year-long DCEU, felt lazy and premature.
Not only that, but Gunn’s openness about cherry-picking characters from that defunct series suggests aimlessness and a lack of vision for his new superhero franchise.
The DCEU Was Also a Failure in the End
To say the DCEU was perfect would be a lie.
Despite having some solid entries under its belt (Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League, and Wonder Woman being among them), that franchise had more bad films than good ones, and also lacked a coherent roadmap.
Beyond Snyder’s trilogy of films — dubbed the Snyderverse — there were jarring shifts in tone and style and varying degrees of success critically and commercially. As the series, which began with Man of Steel (2013), reached its 10-year anniversary, it drew its last breath with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023).
Only the Snyderverse Is Worth Salvaging
However, setting the rest of the DCEU aside, Snyder’s three films — whether you refer to them as the Snyderverse, the Justice League Saga, or the Man of Steel trilogy — have garnered a huge following over the years, one that seems far bigger than the DCU fanbase.
As Snyder himself recently put it during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, “That three-movie trilogy is a weed that just won’t die,” adding that “it grows on its own” and “has its own life.”
The director has been instrumental in keeping those films alive, especially over the past few months since launching his Instagram account.
Although, in sharing several behind-the-scenes photos from his trilogy, he has on more than one occasion inadvertently (or perhaps not so much) fanned the flames of speculation, leading many fans to become convinced that the Snyderverse is set to continue, or that Henry Cavill may one day reprise his role as Superman.
Most recently, Snyder celebrated the 10-year-anniversary of Batman v Superman and the five-year-anniversary of Justice League (2021) on his social media. Naturally, fans dissected and analyzed his images and captions, but it was his appearance on the podcast with Josh Horowitz where he offered some solid clarity around the future of the Snyderverse.
When asked about whether there will be any follow-ups to his trilogy, Snyder said, “I would never say that there’s no way,” before adding how he never thought Justice League (2021) would happen after the original 2017 version — which he left due to a personal tragedy — was panned by audiences and critics and fell short of the studio’s commercial expectations.
“I was on the ride that created Justice League, and if you were in my shoes, there were numerous times, dark times, when there was no chance that there will ever be my version of it,” he explained. “It will never exist. It can’t… cost, politics, everything stood against.”
He added, “And yet it exists.”
The huge online, fan-led campaign #RestoreTheSnyderCut led to Warner Bros. allowing Snyder to complete the film in his original vision, with new visual effects, score, and editing, and additional material being shot. Zack Snyder’s Justice League was released on HBO Max in the US on March 18, 2021 and received wide praise from viewers and critics.
Will the Snyderverse Return, and How?
Snyder was also asked whether his outline for the now-scrapped Justice League 2 and 3 could be turned into a comic or an animated feature one day.
“We absolutely talked about it quite a bit,” he told Horowitz. “We live in a world where all that is possible. Whatever form it would take, that would be amazing.”
The lesson here is that fans obviously possess the power to make these things happen. Now, #RestoreTheSnyderVerse is gaining traction online, which comes after a new round of Instagram posts from Snyder. Nothing has been announced, and it seems the director was simply celebrating those BvS and Justice League milestones.
Although the words “looking toward what comes next” that accompany a collage of Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, and Ray Fisher as their respective heroes felt deliberate.
With DCU struggling to connect with audiences and the hunger for more Snyderverse content continuing to grow, it could only be a matter of time before fans are heard again. But, if it does continue, it might only be through other media in the same way Tim Burton’s two films, Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), have lived on through DC’s Batman ’89 comics and the novels Batman: Resurrection (2024) and Batman: Revolution (2025).
On the other hand, when you look back at what happened with Justice League, new films don’t seem so far-fetched.
Watch Snyder’s full interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in the video below.
Do you think the Snyderverse should return? If so, how? In film or another medium entirely? Share your thoughts with us!