Zack Snyder Weighs In on James Gunn’s DCU Vision

The Man of Steel and BVS director sounds off on James Gunn’s DCU.

Though Zack Snyder‘s recent career has been defined by his original works for Netflix with Army of the Dead and both parts of Rebel Moon, he’ll always be the main DC guy to many. Even before his 2013 Superman movie Man of Steel kickstarted the first concerted effort to have a shared DC Universe on the big screen, he adapted the previously considered unadaptable Watchmen into a feature film as well. Now the world of DC Comics is in other hands as former Marvel wunderkind James Gunn is running DC Studios along with producer Peter Safran. So what does Snyder think of it all?

“You know, I’m a pretty open book,” Snyder said to CBR in a new interview about the new DCU. “I really feel like, you know, if the characters are treated with reverence, and mythologically correct, then I’m down. I’m in. Let’s see what happens. I’m pretty excited… I mean, we’re going to get Superman pretty soon, so we’ll see what that’s like.”

Naturally Snyder’s enthusiasm got its way in front of James Gunn, who is also active online, with one fan asking if he saw that the filmmaker had expressed his excitement for the DCU. Gunn replied, “I didn’t but I knew it already because he’s texted me. He’s been incredibly supportive throughout this process.”

There’s a surprising amount of symmetry surrounding James Gunn’s upcoming DCU slate of feature films and TV shows and with Zack Snyder’s previous attempt at a DC Universe. Primarily, they’re both starting with a Superman movie (2013’s Man of Steel and 2025’s Superman) and will debut not long after a popular dark-and-gritty version of Batman with no connectivity was released (2008’s The Dark Knight and 2021’s The Batman). 

Another interesting similarity is that both had/have plans to bring DC teams to the big screen that have previously never been adapted (2016’s Suicide Squad and the previously announced The Authority), not to mention films starring women of DC (2017’s Wonder Woman and the planned Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie).

Whether its the way that they connect to each other, what characters are prioritized, or the overall tone of the projects, comparisons will no doubt abound between both versions of the DC Universe on the big screen.