For many, Zack Snyder is a director closely associated with DC films, bringing the once dubbed “impossible to film” Watchmen to the big screens in 2009 and kicking off the DC Extended Universe or DCEU.
Starting with the Man of Steel in 2013, Snyder divided fans with a darker yet more realistic iteration of the epitome of the character who has become the epitome of superheroes. He would later direct the long-awaited meeting between DC’s two biggest names, launching Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016. The film laid the groundwork for a Justice League film.
However, in the middle of the Justice League production, the director had to step down after the death of his daughter, Autumn Snyder. Joss Whedon, director of rival Marvel’s Avengers, took the helm, but the film that came out stripped away everything fans loved about Snyder’s work.
Since then, Zack Snyder has been showing his original plans for DC’s most powerful group of superheroes on social media, prompting the monumental “Release the Snyder Cut” movement. Although it took some time and an extensive petition, DC finally obliged and greenlit the original project, now dubbed “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.”
The impact of Snyder’s visual style and approach to DC’s most beloved characters became a part of pop culture with people often noting that other films with a darker tone reminds them of the polarizing director’s work.
Amazon Prime Video’s series The Boys is the latest show to pay tribute to Snyder. Within the show’s universe, the Seven (a parody of DC’s Justice League) gets their own film called Dawn of the Seven, a not-so subtle nod to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Wildly teased throughout the second season, Dawn of the Seven finally made its way into the real world, with a tweet from the official Vought International Twitter account.
Billed as “The Bourke Cut,” The Boys’ Adam Bourke wrote and directed the film only to have it rewritten by another writer named Joss, taking a dig at the real-life events behind the catastrophic Justice League theatrical cut in 2017. Zack Snyder joined in on the fun on Twitter, congratulating the fiction director for his work and sharing his excitement to have his vision realized.
Although there is no word on Snyder’s future with the DC films, his influence can still be felt throughout the latest DCEU productions. The Boys’ tribute to Snyder shows how appreciated he is even when others don’t. Following the release of the Snyder Cut, many have started a new movement called, “Restore the Snyderverse.”
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is available on HBO Max while The Boys will launch season 3 on Amazon Prime Videos on June 3.
