The internet unsurprisingly went into total meltdown at the news that the Snyder Cut of Justice League was officially in the works and on the way to HBO Max, but Zack Snyder finally being granted the opportunity to finish his original version of the movie could potentially end up causing headaches for the DCEU in the long run.
After the critical and commercial failure of Justice League, which saw Warner Bros. fail to make a single penny out of the troubled $300 million production, it appeared as though the studio were using the experience to draw a line under the first era of their shared universe, with plans to either softly reboot Snyder’s involvement or erase it from continuity entirely.
However, a recent social media post from YouTuber Grace Randolph, who’s proven to be a very reliable source of information about the Snyder Cut, hinted that if the re-edited Justice League turns out to be a huge hit for HBO Max, which it most likely will given the two and a half year campaign that virtually willed it into existence, then WB could change course and a Man of Steel sequel or even a potential follow-up to Snyder’s Justice League might be back on the cards.
Even @thr interview said additional photography.
I’ve heard from another source that word is WB wants Snyder to put stuff into the #SnyderCut to set up MoS2 and JL2 so if it’s a huge hit they can move forward.
We’ll see if that happens, but that’s what WB is thinking. pic.twitter.com/ZKHVUTYmwT
— Grace Randolph (@GraceRandolph) May 24, 2020
Man of Steel 2 has always been at the top of fans’ DCEU wish-lists, and Justice League was originally envisioned by Snyder as the first chapter in a two-part story, but the latter could prove to be a trickier proposition given how much it would impact the current timeline of the franchise. Batman is already recast and in the midst of getting rebooted, there doesn’t seem to be a place for Cyborg anymore, and the fact that The Flash is still stuck in development hell appears to be the least of star Ezra Miller’s worries at the moment.
That being said, Joker has already shown that DC adaptations can both exist and thrive outside of the main timeline, and if the Snyder Cut lives up to the hype and finally manages to see the movie turn a profit, then Justice League Part 2 can’t be entirely ruled out. Especially given that many people thought that the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement would eventually die off long before the events of this week.