The positive reception to James Gunn’s Superman seemed like the final nail in the coffin of Zack Snyder’s “Snyderverse” DC superhero movies (a coffin that seemed like it had gotten a dozen final nails already), but Snyder fans may have gotten yet another last-minute reprieve. First, the rumors that Paramount was interested in merging with Warner Bros. sparked hopes that a new owner would see the supposed error of Warner Bros. Discovery’s ways and “#RestoreTheSnyderverse” — which would presumably entail prematurely killing off Gunn and producer Peter Safran’s new DC Universe in favor of resurrecting a line of superhero movies that were often both critically unpopular and financially disappointing. Now, though, Netflix is also supposedly in talks to buy Warner Bros., which could be encouraging to Snyder fans since the streamer has an existing relationship with the director.
Snyder fans have been asking Netflix to take over the Snyderverse for years, despite the fact that — until now, maybe — it didn’t make a lick of sense. As Gunn himself pointed out on social media in 2023 in response to a “#SellTheSnyderverseToNetflix” hashtag, Netflix never expressed an interest in the so-called Snyderverse (despite talking to Gunn and WB about “other stuff”), Snyder himself never expressed an interest in reviving it for Netflix, and also Snyder seemed to be “happy” making his Rebel Moon movies with Netflix at the time. Then there’s the fact that Warner Bros. giving the Snyderverse to Netflix (a direct competitor in the streaming wars) would’ve required sharing the rights to the DC Comics superhero canon, which is one of WB’s crown jewels alongside Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. It would be like McDonald’s telling Wendy’s that it can also sell the Big Mac.
Will Netflix Buy Warner Bros. and Restore the Snyderverse?
It seems unlikely that Netflix will buy Warner Bros., if only because it’s existentially terrifying to think that one of the biggest streaming companies in the world could buy one of the biggest movie studios (further consolidating power in the movie industry, reducing competition, and commercializing the art form). Beyond that, Netflix’s competition in buying Warner Bros. would be Paramount, which is now run by Skydance’s David Ellison (son of one of the richest people in the world) after those two companies merged, so it effectively has a Scrooge McDuck-style bottomless pool of gold it can use to court Netflix. There’s also the fact that a massive merger involving these companies would be scrutinized by the FCC, so any parties involved would be incentivized to stay on the U.S. government’s good side, and that’s all we’ll say about that.
As for the Snyderverse getting restored, anything is possible if one of these mergers happens. If the entire global movie business is controlled by three or so companies, what’s stopping them from throwing millions and millions of dollars at multiple lines of disconnected DC Comics superhero movies? Your choices as a consumer will be watching a Marvel movie from Disney, watching a DC movie from Warner Bros.-Paramount/Netflix, or watching nothing. That’s the ultimate result of mergers like this: Little by little, everything gets worse and the already-rich become even richer. But sure, there’s a chance we’ll get Zack Snyder’s Justice League 2 (featuring the actual “Knightmare” future that Snyder kept teasing) out of it.
via Collider