It’s hard to think of a modern fandom that’s more divided than that of the DCU, with two separate camps having been firmly established that love nothing more than raining on each other’s parade, with James Gunn and Zack Snyder set squarely at the center of the storm.
The irony can’t be overlooked when the two worked together on Snyder’s feature-length directorial debut – with Gunn penning the screenplay for the Dawn of the Dead remake – never mind the fact they’ve remained friendly ever since. Needless to say, the pair’s personal relationship hasn’t stopped trolls and haters from pitting them against each other in an imaginary feud that exists only within the minds of the staunchest SnyderVerse stalwarts.
With the demands for the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad continuing to gather momentum, it’s become clear which side of the fence Snyder’s most vocal backers sit when it comes to the maligned antihero ensemble epic. And yet, after things went a touch too far when Gunn’s wife Jennifer Holland was targeted, the filmmaker stepped in to shoot down the bad blood simmering among the DCU faithful.
Sure enough, not too long after stepping in to show that had Gunn’s back when the unsavory online sect made things personal, the End of Watch and Fury architect was then accused of being a “boot-licker” who’d only backed up Gunn to curry favor for his chances of seeing the Ayer Cut brought to life.
It shouldn’t need to be said that Twitter can regularly be a rotten hellscape, but when the pro-Snyder and anti-Gunn crowd turns on someone they’ve been backing to the hilt for years just because he’s showing solidarity against social media hate, you can’t help but wonder how things reached this point.