The scene comes right after Cyborg repairs the ship. Bruce guarantees that Superman will show up to help, Alfred asks where such certainty comes from, and the answer is what Snyder chose to show:

Faith, Alfred. Faith.

Bruce Wayne in Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021), picture posted by the director on Instagram on 10/05/2026

Snyder didn’t write anything, but he chose the day. Hours earlier, the organizational chart of Skydance, the company that was born from the purchase of Warner by Paramount and which closed on Tuesday, the 6th, had been released. There came the missing answer in Gunn stays at DC for the new Skydance: James Gunn and Peter Safran remain co-presidents of DC Studios and report directly to the two bosses, David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz, according to Deadline and CNBC.

There’s another side. Skydance’s Oct. 2 premiere video showed Superman 2025, Robert Pattinson’s Batman and Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, but no footage from the SnyderVerse, according to The Direct. No Cavill, Affleck or Gal.

But Snyder has been talking his way. It was the third post like this in less than a month, always on a key date: Affleck’s Batman on Batman Day, on September 19th; a production art of Batman v Superman on the day the judge approved the sale, on September 30; and now faith, on the eve of closure. The next day, when Ellison celebrated the purchase at X, fans flooded with #RestoreTheSnyderVerse responses, according to ComingSoon. The SnyderVerso channel closed the video from that day with this scene.

For me, it’s the most important message he could give without being able to say anything.

Gui, on the SnyderVerso channel, 10/06/2026, at 24:23

In the scene, Bruce bets on a comeback that no one else expected. And Superman appears.

Boy, that was s***ty, him being taken off that movie and the reshoots that we did. If you want the low point of my career, it was that.

Ben Affleck on Happy Sad Confused, 10/12/2026, at 0:45 of the excerpt published by the podcast

The “he” is Zack Snyder. In May 2017, with Justice League already filmed, Snyder left the project after the death of his daughter, Autumn. Joss Whedon took over, reshot much of it and Warner released a two-hour version that failed. Snyder’s only came out in 2021, after years of campaigning by fans.

For Affleck, the diagnosis is simple.

I really saw how not to make a movie like that, which is when the studio is at odds with the filmmaker. (…) That was what really doomed that.

Ben Affleck on Happy Sad Confused, 10/12/2026, at 0:15 of the excerpt

He also separated things. The drinking and the divorce, which took place at the same time, hurt, but according to him that wasn’t what ruined the film. The tragedy of Snyder’s family gained the harshest sentence in the interview.

And then the way in which that was, I thought, frankly, used as an excuse. I just thought it was one of the s***tiest things I’d ever seen.

Ben Affleck on Happy Sad Confused, 10/12/2026, at 1:25 of the excerpt

He didn’t say who used it. He said he didn’t see everything and that he heard, second-hand, what Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot went through on set. Regarding the Snyder Cut, I can only praise: he was happy and fulfilled that Zack managed to release his version, and he called the path he found smart. And, according to The Playlist, it was this experience that took away his desire to direct the solo Batman that was in the plans.

Notice the date. The conversation was to promote Animals, his new film with Ray Fisher in the cast, which debuted in first place among English-language films on Netflix, with 23.8 million views in three days. And it aired six days after Warner ceased to exist as a company and became part of Skydance. A month earlier, Snyder had told Variety that an executive at the time admitted that he was right, as we said in Snyder was right, an executive admitted.

Batman needed to say it out loud. There’s no more left.

The method is a school test. An equal moment is worth one point, almost the same is worth three quarters, changed is worth four tenths, just mentioned is worth a quarter and cut is worth zero. Result: 42 of the 53 are the same or almost the same in the cinema, and the score rises to 79% in the Ultimate version, the 3 hours and 35. As the channel chose the moments, the honest range is between 70% and 80%. And there is one detail that matters: the comic told frame by frame, the Motion Comic, lasts 5 hours and 25. The cinema film is half that.

It could have been very different. When the project arrived at Snyder, shortly after 300, the studio wanted a 13-year censorship, franchise style and the story taken to the war on terror, with Dr. Manhattan in Iraq instead of Vietnam.

I felt like if I didn’t do it, [the studio] would do it without me, and the way they were going to do it was going to be really [awful].

Zack Snyder, in a round table with university newspapers published by the Columbia Chronicle, 03/16/2009

So he filmed the book. He drew the storyboards on top of Gibbons’ paintings and left the comic in the hands of each actor on the set.

The ending that Gibbons designed

The big change is the end. In the comic, Adrian Veidt releases a giant squid in New York. In the film, he fakes an attack using Dr. Manhattan’s energy. And the idea wasn’t even Snyder’s: according to screenwriter David Hayter, it came from a physicist friend of Darren Aronofsky, the director who only spent a weekend on the project.

The curious thing is who approved it. At Snyder’s request, Gibbons drew the new ending like a comic book page, with John Higgins’ colors, and told TIME magazine that it looked like lost pages from Watchmen. Afterwards, he saw the film at least seven times.

I can’t imagine a more faithful adaptation: it has all the detail, all the visual richness, all the emotional richness of the original.

Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen, at Rotten Tomatoes, 7/27/2009

Moore took his name off the credits and, according to Gibbons, he never saw the film. Of the two men who created Watchmen, one didn’t watch it. The other took the pencil to draw Snyder’s ending.

For those who fell by parachute: Manganiello is the werewolf Alcide from True Blood and Big Dick Richie from Magic Mike, and according to THR he came very close to being Superman. In 2016, Affleck was going to write, direct and star in a Batman of his own, with Deathstroke as his enemy. We will tell this story through the words of those who lived it, in order.

The body shut down

In April 2016, Manganiello collapsed in pain on the set of Series Six in Wilmington, North Carolina. Production stopped and he left the cast due to a health problem, as Deadline reported on the 14th. It was an autoimmune disease that doctors couldn’t explain. At the hospital, he went from 107 to 80 kilos. Then came the dawn he calls the Night in Hell, and emergency surgery the next morning.

My entire large intestine had turned to pus and was about to explode. Had they not cut me open that morning, it would have ruptured, and I would have died immediately of sepsis.

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, excerpt published by The Hollywood Reporter on 10/08/2026

The person who authorized the removal of the intestine was his wife at the time, actress Sofía Vergara. He came out of surgery with an ostomy bag stuck to his stomach, without knowing for how long.

The phone rings

Still trying to get off heavy medication, Manganiello received a call from his agent: Affleck wanted to talk about a role in the new Batman. He went, held back the pain with adrenaline, didn’t say anything about the illness and walked out as Deathstroke. At home, the reaction was not what he expected.

“I just got offered the biggest role of my life,” I said. “Are you insane?” she shouted at me. “You can’t do this movie!”

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, about his conversation with Sofía Vergara, excerpt in The Hollywood Reporter, 10/08/2026

And he himself writes that she was not entirely wrong. But for him, Batman wasn’t just a job.

It was exactly the carrot that I needed to see dangling in front of me, the one that was going to get me out of this nightmare that my life had turned into.

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, excerpt in The Hollywood Reporter, 10/08/2026

London, with the hidden bag

The armor test was in London. On the flight to Heathrow, the bag leaked. He cleaned everything himself in the plane’s bathroom, in the middle of the night, changed his clothes and looked at himself in the mirror.

You’re one tough son of a bitch. You’re a badass. I love you.

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, excerpt in The Hollywood Reporter, 10/08/2026

The day before he stopped eating in the late afternoon, about 18 hours before the test, because DC’s clothes have three or four layers and, with all that pressure, his water could break. When it was time to put on the first layer, he found a way for the team to leave the room, so no one could see the scars. It worked out. Then they warned that a full body scan was still needed, with 256 cameras, and handed over a pair of tiny blue underwear, because the camera doesn’t read black. The THR segment ends there, with him panicking. The rest is for the book.

The movie he read

His scene was recorded that same year, to enter the end of the League and introduce the Batman villain. On August 29, 2016, Affleck released a Deathstroke test video on Twitter, without saying who was in the armor, and on September 8, DC confirmed his name to the Wall Street Journal. In 2021, Manganiello said that he read a good part of the Batman script while recording the League.

The Batman movie would be kind of similar to, you know, imagine if David Fincher’s The Game were real. He systematically dismantles Bruce’s life and starts killing the people in it.

Joe Manganiello on ComicBook Nation, ComicBook.com podcast, 03/24/2021, at 13:01

In the same conversation he said the rest: Deathstroke wrecked Bruce’s finances, Batgirl joined the fight, and Batman was truly scared, because he had found someone capable of beating him. A horror movie villain, in his words, like a shark.

The Batman that never got off the ground

On January 30, 2017, Affleck left the direction and continued as Batman.

It’s become clear that I can’t do both jobs at the level they require.

Ben Affleck, in a statement to Variety, 01/30/2017

Years later, he told the New York Times what he weighed. It was the same time, 2015 and 2016, and he was also struggling with drinking.

I showed the Batman script to someone. She said: I think the script is good. I also think you’ll drink yourself to death if you go through what you just went through again.

Ben Affleck to the New York Times, reproduced by Collider, 02/18/2020

In January 2019, he left the role for good. Think about it: two guys in the same movie, each fighting for his own life. Affleck chose his. For us, this is courage. And today he’s there, directing again, as we said in Affleck directs Ray Fisher in Animals.

Snyder returns the scene

But the Deathstroke scene didn’t premiere the way it was shot. In the 2017 Justice League, it was changed, and Manganiello only found out close to the debut.

The scene you see in the Snyder Cut is the real scene that we recorded. When Batman was cancelled, without me knowing, they went there, put Jesse in a fake bald head, filmed him up close and changed all the dialogue to announce a Justice League Part Two that I didn’t even know existed.

Joe Manganiello at ComicBook Nation, 03/24/2021, at 9:17

In 2021, Zack Snyder’s League returned the original scene. And Snyder even called Manganiello to put on the armor again, now in Knightmare.

I want to give a huge shout out to Zack Snyder for including me in the Justice League this time.

Joe Manganiello at ComicBook Nation, 03/24/2021, at 6:02

Soon after, he gave credit where it’s due: Snyder only had this chance to return because of the fans.

The role that saved the actor

Affleck’s Batman was never filmed. But, reading Manganiello, you can understand that he fulfilled a function that no film fulfills: he put an 80-kilo man, with a bag on his body, on his feet again. Today, according to People, he has already reconnected his intestine and lives without symptoms.

The role was my destiny.

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, excerpt in The Hollywood Reporter, 10/08/2026

This destiny could well have a second chapter. Anyone who follows the SnyderVerse knows that a good story, in this universe, never dies. She waits.

In the last episode of Lanterns, the hero chains the villain and dunks his head in water until he speaks. It’s John Stewart, the Green Lantern of the series, getting the truth out of Sinestro. And American critics left the episode applauding.

Lanterns is the HBO series in the James Gunn universe, with Aaron Pierre as John Stewart and Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, and closed the season on Sunday, October 4th. Last week the channel showed that she had already done almost everything that Snyder heard for ten years that the hero doesn’t do, in Lanterns did everything that condemned Snyder.

The ending went further. After the drowning, which Collider describes as waterboarding and Nerdist calls a long session of torture, John discovers who killed Hal: Sheriff Kerry, played by Kelly Macdonald. And let her free, because that’s what Hal would want. He then breaks with the Guardians, the leaders of the Corps, and declares himself the Earth Lantern on his own. Chris Mundy, who runs the series, told Entertainment Weekly that John is, more or less, blackmailing the Guardians. Uniform, nothing. And the ring, according to IndieWire, is almost like an ornament.

And the criticism? Den of Geek summed it up as a lot of drama, little superheroes, and for the best. The AV Club chose the expression heroic grace. Nerdist thought the series hit the landing and noted that the drowning scene leaves John much more morally gray than usual.

In the audience, the series is doing well. According to Variety, until the seventh episode the average was over 12 million viewers per episode in the United States and reached close to 19 million worldwide, at the level of It: Welcome to Derry, which was renewed. It is below The Penguin, the last DC series on HBO, which closed above 27 million.

But the renewal didn’t come. Gunn called the episode a season finale, and the decision now falls into the lap of Skydance, the company that was born from the purchase of Warner. Mundy spoke like someone who has already made peace with any answer.

If there’s more, great. And if there’s not, we had our day.

Chris Mundy, showrunner of Lanterns, at Entertainment Weekly, 04/10/2026

Why the ending didn’t convince us

First, what we won’t do: complain that the hero went too far. Anyone who defends the Batman who branded a criminal in Batman v Superman has no moral standing to turn up their nose at a John Stewart who crosses the line. A dirty hero is fine, and sometimes it’s what makes the story good. The problem with the end of Lanterns is different.

The entire season was built around one question: who killed Hal Jordan. And then, in the same episode, the answer appears and leaves. The killer is revealed and walks free, without a reckoning, without the confrontation that eight episodes promised. The justification is that it was what Hal would want. It may even be beautiful on paper, but on screen it looks like the series discovered its own climax and gave up on it.

Then comes the ring. In a series called Lanterns, John ends up declaring himself a Lantern by force, blackmailing the Guardians, without a uniform, with the ring almost as an ornament, as IndieWire itself noted. Den of Geek praised the show for being heavy on drama and light on superhero. For us, that’s exactly where it hurts. Green Lantern is the Corps, it is the cosmos, it is willpower becoming light. The series spent eight episodes keeping this in a drawer and closed it with the drawer still closed.

And there is the comparison that matters, without hypocrisy. When Superman kills Zod in Man of Steel, the film stops. He screams, collapses, and this choice becomes the weight he carries until Batman v Superman, with the entire world questioning who he is. Darkness in Snyder costs the hero dearly. At the end of Lanterns, Sinestro’s drowning becomes a stepping stone to the next scene, and what this costs John is left for a second season that no one guaranteed. Darkness without consequence is just aesthetic.

None of this erases what the series did well. The ratings are good, Aaron Pierre holds the role, and if the renewal comes, we will watch. But that remains the question that Snyder fans have been asking since 2013, now with more force. If drowning the villain without paying any price became heroic grace, why was Superman breaking Zod’s neck, paying the full price in front of us, treated as the end of the world?

The context, quickly: the judge released the sale on Wednesday, 30th, as is in Judge releases the sale of Warner, and the purchase closed on Tuesday, October 6th, with the new company debuting on the New York Stock Exchange on the same day. On Friday, the 2nd, Ellison named the company that was born from there: Skydance, the same as the studio he founded in 2006. Paramount and Warner Bros. follow as marks beneath it.

Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first home for bold, quality storytelling.

David Ellison at X, 02/10/2026

The post came with a video of scenes from the two studios, accompanied by the score that Hans Zimmer made for Inception. At the end, eight logos surround the name Skydance and, in the top row, next to the Paramount mountain and the Warner shield, is the DC circle. The Hollywood Reporter called it a Bat-Signal about DC’s weight in the new house.

Now, what changes. At David Zaslav’s Warner, Gunn and Safran reported directly to the boss. At Skydance, the doubt was short-lived. Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, who ran Paramount’s cinema, were responsible for the cinema at both studios, but DC was left out of that line: in the organization chart that came out on October 5th, Gunn and Safran continue as co-presidents of DC Studios and report directly to David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz, according to Deadline and CNBC.

And until when? According to the Hollywood Reporter, the consensus within is that the duo at least deliver what has already been filmed: Clayface, on October 23, and Man of Tomorrow, the sequel to Superman, in July 2027. Nobody wants to repeat 2023, when The Flash and Aquaman 2 were made by one boss and released by another. Their contract expires in the spring of 2027.

And Snyder? His name did not appear in any advertisement. Just notice: in Toronto, he told Variety that he knows that the Ellisons value the brand, as we said in Snyder wants to chat with the future owner of DC. And the first thing Skydance showed the world was DC up there.

His return continues without anything official. But the company that was born on Tuesday has already said two things that Snyder likes to hear: that DC is worth its weight in gold and that creation comes first. For those who waited four years to see their own version of a film reach the public, this slogan has an address.

If you just landed here: the judge cleared the sale on Wednesday, the 30th, as we reported in Judge clears the sale of Warner. De Luca and Abdy came from MGM, the James Bond studio, and were announced on June 1, 2022, replacing Toby Emmerich, who ran Warner’s film division back when 2017’s Justice League was made. They arrived after Snyder was already gone. And DC was never theirs: DC Studios, run by James Gunn and Peter Safran, has reported directly to David Zaslav since 2022.

Under the duo, Warner had a strong 2025, with Sinners, A Minecraft Movie, contract renewals in October and, later, the Best Picture Oscar for One Battle After Another. But 2026 weighed on them: TheWrap, the Hollywood news site, points out that Supergirl and The Bride! did not draw audiences.

Taking their place, according to Variety and Puck, are Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, who run Paramount’s film division, overseeing both studios. Officially, nothing has been announced: Paramount and Warner declined to comment, and someone close to the duo told TheWrap that Paramount had not even told them yet.

So why does this matter to Snyder fans? Because this is the duo that opened Warner’s door to him again. In August, they invited Snyder to present Excalibur, one of his favorite films, to employees in Burbank, with a conversation with the two of them at the end. According to Page Six, the gossip column, it was a hero’s welcome, with a packed room and people standing. That night is in Snyder turned down the Marvel formula.

Seeing the people behind that gesture walk out is a loss. Now look at who handles the artists at the new company.

Ellison will focus on the company’s long-term strategy, creative vision and direction, including its talent relationships

Paramount Skydance spokesperson to TheWrap, 09/30/2026

Talent, in Hollywood language, means actors and directors. And Ellison is the man Snyder told Variety, in September, that he would love to talk to, as we covered in Snyder wants a word with DC’s future owner. A return through Paramount is still unconfirmed. But in place of the two allies from August, the person handling the artists is the very man he named. To us, that conversation just got closer, not further away.

For those who fell by parachute: Paramount Skydance, owned by David Ellison, signed the purchase in February, for around 111 billion dollars including debts. In July, 12 states went to court, on September 21st the agreement was reached and at the hearing on the 24th the judge warned that it was not a rubber stamp. This wait is in Judge holds the sale of Warner.

Because she read the opinions against it, admitted that she had reason to be disappointed and concluded that wanting more from the agreement is not illegal. Signed as it was. So what the channel read in the 32 pages is worth it: 30 films per year in American cinemas in the first two years and 32 in the following three, 45 days alone in the theater, 300 million dollars more per year in production in the United States and the Burbank studio protected until the end of 2031.

And who is in charge? Ellison remains chairman of the board and CEO, and brought in Ynon Kreiz, who ran Mattel, to share the role and take care of the day-to-day operations. According to CNN, Ellison is in charge of the strategy, creative direction and relationship with the artists. David Zaslav, head of Warner since 2022, must leave.

And DC? So far, no one has announced a change. Ellison has already visited the set of Man of Tomorrow and, according to a DC producer to the Hollywood Reporter, he is very open to working with James Gunn and Peter Safran, who have a contract until the spring of 2027.

And Snyder? He gave the message in Toronto, as we said in Snyder wants to chat with the future owner of DC.

I would love to have a conversation with them. I know they value the brand and Warner Bros. is one of the great cinematic brands of all time.

Zack Snyder to Variety, interview published on 09/15/2026

In the same interview he said that he thinks the Ellisons love cinema, and laughed at himself: maybe it was optimism, maybe naivety. Now notice: the relationship with the artists in the new house lies with Ellison himself. And on Wednesday morning, hours before the signing, Snyder posted Batman v Superman production art on Instagram, which received more than 62,000 likes.

His return to Paramount is still a rumor: no one from the company has touched on the subject. But the door he wants to knock on gets a new owner on Tuesday. And, for us, there has never been a better time for this conversation.

For those who have just arrived: Affleck was the Batman of the SnyderVerse, from Batman vs Superman, in 2016, until the Snyder Cut, in 2021. Fisher played Cyborg and was one of the voices in the campaign for Warner to release Snyder’s version. He joined the cast of Animals in March 2025, according to Deadline.

The story is heavy. Affleck plays a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles whose son is kidnapped in the middle of the campaign, and he and his wife, played by Kerry Washington, go to extreme measures to pay the ransom. The cast also includes Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun, the photography is by Robert Elswit, from Blood, and the producer is Artists Equity, Affleck’s company with Matt Damon. It is the first film he has directed since 2023’s Air.

But this week the film became a topic for another reason. On Wednesday, the 30th, at a Bloomberg event, Affleck said that he used artificial intelligence for a lot of things in Animals. Where, he doesn’t say. And he explained why.

It’s sort of like if you went to a magic show and the magician walked out and said, ‘Just before I start, I want you to know there’s another bunny under here.’ … You know, it’s sort of ruined, right?

Ben Affleck at Bloomberg’s Screentime event, 09/30/2026, according to Hollywood Reporter

There’s context there. This year, Netflix bought InterPositive, an AI tools company for filmmakers that Affleck founded, for almost 600 million dollars. At the same event he said that he doesn’t believe that AI will let someone type in a request and come out with a film that people want to see, and that Animals is a very human film.

For us, what matters is something else. Five years after the Snyder Cut, Batman and Cyborg once again share a film, now with Affleck at the helm. On the 9th we’ll check.

For those who have just arrived: Cavill was Zack Snyder’s Superman in Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Justice League. Off screen, he is one of the most famous gamers in Hollywood, and according to Google itself, it was this love for games and computers that led the company to him. He says he asked to test the notebook before launch.

After being hands on and spending some time with their team, I believe this has the potential to be the start of something rather special.

Henry Cavill in the Google ad, 29/09/2026, according to 9to5Google

What game this is, no one said, not even the genre. Google only warns that the notebook is full of artificial intelligence tools to help with the process, and that the news comes out on Android’s Instagram.

But the detail that caught DC fans was something else. In the campaign photos, Cavill appears with a mustache. And the official Google account on X responded to the announcement with “we think it’s going to be super”, with a wink at the end.

And a mustache with Superman has history. In 2017, Cavill was filming Mission: Impossible, Fallout, with a mustache, when Warner called him to reshoot Justice League, without Snyder in charge. Paramount, owner of Mission: Impossible, didn’t let him shave it, and Warner erased the mustache on the computer. The digital lip became a joke all over the world. But Zack Snyder’s Justice League, from 2021, didn’t use any of those reshoots, so in his cut this problem never existed.

Now look at the way the world is turning. Paramount, the studio that held that mustache, should close the purchase of Warner and DC on Tuesday, the 6th. And Google, which has nothing to do with this, knows very well who Superman is for this audience. In November we see the game.

For those who just dropped it: Rebel Moon is the space opera that Snyder made for Netflix, in two parts. Part 1, The Fire Girl, premiered in December 2023, and Part 2, The Scar Marker, in April 2024, both in the lighter version, rated PG-13 in the United States. On August 2, 2024, the director’s cuts came, rated R and much longer: Goblet of Blood, with 204 minutes, and Curse of Forgiveness, with 173.

And that’s what Snyder is betting on.

I don’t know… I made those, the director’s cuts of the movies… as those maybe, like, get a little bit more popular and sort of, like, get discovered… a little bit more groundswell about maybe making another one.

Zack Snyder to The Direct, at the Toronto Film Festival, video published on 25/09/2026, at 09:59

Translation: the ball is in the public’s court. And there’s no shortage of stories to tell. Last year Kurt Johnstad, who wrote Rebel Moon with Snyder, told a podcast that they already had detailed outlines for films 3, 4, 5 and 6, and that Snyder had the entire world planned out.

Netflix hasn’t announced anything, and today part 3 is not greenlit. But Snyder has already seen a director’s cut change everything once. In 2021, it was the insistence of the fans that took his Justice League out of the drawer and put it on air.

So the message is simple. The two director’s cuts are on Netflix as separate titles, and the details for each film here on the website show where to watch in each country: Part 1 and Part 2. If Netflix decides what we watch, it can make noise the way it listens.

For those who have fallen now: in an interview with Variety published on September 15th, recorded at the Toronto Film Festival, Snyder said that a Warner executive admitted that the studio was fighting with him and that, in the end, he was right. But he stopped before the name.

I met with this executive at Warner Bros. who’s long gone since

Zack Snyder to Variety, interview published on 09/15/2026

And then the video does what he didn’t do: it takes the clues that Snyder himself gave and crosses them with facts that have a date and source. He’s a man, because Snyder talks about him in the masculine. He left Warner a long time ago. And he was part of the management that fought with him in 2017. The table starts with eight names that were sent to Warner or DC from 2016 to now, and the clues are removed one by one.

That leaves Emmerich, and his facts fit one after the other. In 2017 he was the head of cinema at Warner, that is, he was in charge of the fight. In November 2019, shortly after the hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut was pushed, the message reached the Snyders was from him: was it real, and would they agree to do something? The Hollywood Reporter (2020) and Vanity Fair (2021) are counting. In February 2020 he was in the room, in Pasadena, seeing the cut in black and white. And in June 2022, with David Zaslav in charge, he left the head of Warner cinema and went for a producer contract.

For us, logic concludes: he is the only one on the list who was in the fight, has already left and has a public path back to Snyder, with a date. But theory is theory. Snyder makes a point of not exposing anyone and it is very likely that he will never confirm it. If one day the name comes out, the channel will come back to tell you, whether it’s right or wrong.

And look at the size of it, whoever it is. For years the official version was that Snyder was the problem. Now someone on the other side of the table says otherwise. In the video you have the complete picture of the suspects, and the question remains with you: is it Emmerich or are you betting on another name?

For those who have just arrived: Paramount Skydance, owned by David Ellison, signed the purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery in February, for around 111 billion dollars. In July, California and 11 other states went to court to block it, and on Monday, the 21st, the two sides filed an agreement to end the fight. The channel read the 32 pages and the video came out on Wednesday, the 23rd.

What’s on the paper? At least 30 films per year in American cinemas in the first two years and 32 in the following three, with a fine of 30 million dollars for each missing film. One in every five has to be a big film, $50 million or more and in 3,000 theaters or more. Each one stays in the cinema for 45 days and only reaches subscription streaming after 90 days. And the Burbank studio, where Snyder presented a screening of Excalibur in August, cannot be sold or closed until the end of 2031.

But all of this depends on her signature. On Tuesday, the 22nd, the judge had already announced that she had questions, and opened the hearing like this.

The court isn’t a rubber stamp of your agreement… I have some questions.

Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, at the hearing on 24/09/2026, according to Variety

She wanted to make sure the deal came from a real negotiation, without collusion, and California and Paramount made sure it was. Then homework was done: both sides have until Monday, the 28th, at 4pm Brasília, to respond to a letter from senator Cory Booker, who asks for an independent review before any signature. And in the early hours of Friday, the Block the Merger coalition, of press and independent film groups, and LULAC, an organization of Latinos in the USA, filed opinions asking for the agreement to be rejected.

And the clock is ticking. Ellison was talking about closing the purchase in a couple of weeks, but from October 1st, Paramount will pay Warner about 7 million dollars a day until it closes.

And for SnyderVerse? In our reading, waiting does not change what is on paper. Snyder is a director of the big screen, of IMAX, of films made for the dark room. The deal does not bring him back alone, and his return to Paramount remains a rumor. But, if the judge signs it, the type of cinema he makes will be guaranteed a place until 2031.

The video has the rest: who’s who at the new Warner, what changes for Gunn’s DC, and our unfiltered take.

He sat down with Borys Kit, a reporter at The Hollywood Reporter (Hollywood’s business magazine), at his office in Pasadena, California. The piece came out on September 12, the day before The Last Photograph premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. The subject was the new film, small and independent, shot in Colombia in 32 days with the camera on his own shoulder. But, as always, the conversation went back to DC.

Here is his reasoning. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are the most famous heroes in the world, apart from Spider-Man. As Snyder sees it, Marvel figured out how to shape its characters to sell, but he was always after something else: what makes these heroes iconic on the inside.

I had no interest in that. And you know, maybe that was a mistake. But I don’t think that way. I can’t do that. I’d rather just kind of talk about the mythology of them.

Zack Snyder to The Hollywood Reporter, interview by Borys Kit published on 09/12/2026

Then he added that maybe that is not as much fun. And laughed.

Now look at the “maybe that was a mistake” part. It is not an apology. It is a guy admitting the market rewards the roller coaster and saying, in the same breath, that he does not know how to work any other way. And audiences went with him. Man of Steel made 670 million dollars worldwide and Batman v Superman made 874 million, according to Box Office Mojo. When Warner rewrote and reshot 2017’s Justice League to make everything lighter, the film made 661 million on a 300 million budget, the lowest box office of the three. And then fans spent more than three years asking for Snyder’s version, until it came out in March 2021.

The same interview has a detail that is so him. Snyder went back to the Warner lot to present a screening of Excalibur, one of his favorite films, and took an hour of questions. One of them was about the adversity he has faced in his career. He found it a little odd to hear that in that very room, where he lost the universe he built. And he took it in stride.

For us, that is where the SnyderVerse lives. You forget a roller coaster on your way out of the park. Mythology is what people are still arguing about ten years later.

Quick context for those who fell now. Paramount, led by David Ellison, announced the purchase in February, in a deal worth around 110 billion dollars. The Department of Justice approved it in June, but in July California and 11 other states sued and managed to stop the closure.

The price is interesting for those who like cinema. According to the Hollywood Reporter and CNN, Paramount is obliged to release at least 30 films per year in theaters in the first two years and 32 in the following three, with a fine of 30 million dollars for each missing film. Federal judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin’s yes is missing, in a hearing scheduled for Thursday, the 24th. And it’s in a hurry: from October 1st, Paramount will owe Warner 7 million dollars a day until it closes.

And Snyder in all this? He had already spoken. In the interview with Variety published on September 15, in Toronto, he said that he never spoke to Larry Ellison, David’s father and guarantor of a large part of the purchase capital, and that he doesn’t know what the family wants to do with the studio. But he left the message.

I would love to have a conversation with them.

Zack Snyder to Variety, interview published on 09/15/2026

Then he remembered that the Warner shield at the opening of a film means something, and that most of his films carry that logo. He said he thinks the Ellisons love movies and hopes that matters. And he laughed at himself: perhaps it was optimism, perhaps naivety.

Four days later came Batman Day. On Saturday, the 19th, Snyder posted Ben Affleck’s Batman in Batman v Superman on Instagram, with the caption “Happy Batman day”. As of this Tuesday, there were 139 thousand likes and more than 4 thousand comments, and according to Cosmic Book News one of the most liked comments asked for Justice League 2 and 3.

Even the Guardian, a British newspaper that was never a fan club of his, recalled on the 18th that no one expected the Snyder Cut either, and that stranger things have already happened. His return at the hands of Paramount, for now, is a rumor: no one from the company said anything.

Now notice the way. He didn’t ask for a position and didn’t send any hints to anyone. He asked for a conversation. The door hasn’t opened yet, but for the first time in years there are new people on the other side of it.

To understand the weight of this, go back a little. In May 2017, in the middle of post-production on Justice League, Snyder stepped away from the film after a family tragedy. Warner called Joss Whedon, who rewrote and reshot much of the story. The version that premiered in November of that year was not his, it just had his name in the credits. Then came the movement, the hashtag, and in March 2021 Snyder’s League came out with four hours.

In Variety he told what happened after all that. He met with an executive at Warner, who is no longer there, and declined to give his name. And you heard it here.

You were right about everything.

Zack Snyder, repeating what he heard from a former Warner executive, to Variety, interview published on 09/15/2026

The executive added: we fought with you, and in the end you were right. The journalist wanted to know exactly what. Snyder responded that it was about his entire vision for the DC universe and his way of making films.

And then he does something that says a lot about the guy. He made it clear that he was talking about the board of directors at that time, which is no longer there. He even explained their side: they had a brand worth a fortune in their hands, everyone’s job depended on it being successful, and they thought they had given everything into the hands of a madman. So, in his words, what happened to his family may have seemed to them like a window to take the film back. And he himself warned that it would sound horrible.

He also said that the launch of the 2017 version was rock bottom. He had lost his daughter and, at the same time, his name was on a film he didn’t make. What saved him was finishing the League his way. Today, according to him, you can’t walk down the street without someone stopping to thank you for that film.

For us, this phrase from the executive is worth more than a lot of criticism. Because it comes from within, from those on the other side of the table. But the Snyder fan didn’t need all that time to reach that conclusion. He said this in November 2017, in a petition, and hasn’t stopped since.

The good detail is where this film came from. According to SlashFilm, War Without Rules made less than 30 million dollars in theaters, with a budget of 60 million. In Brazil, it wasn’t even shown on the big screen: it went straight to Prime Video in July 2024. In other words, the film that did poorly in the cinema found the public at home, two years later, and the public went after Cavill.

And it didn’t stop there. In the same week, In the Gray Zone, his other film with Guy Ritchie, this time alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, rose 19 positions and reached 6th place on the JustWatch streaming film chart in the United States, after entering the Starz catalog.

For those who have just arrived, a little context. Cavill was Zack Snyder’s Superman in Man of Steel, in 2013, in Batman v Superman, in 2016, and in Snyder’s Justice League, in 2021. In October 2022 he appeared back with the cover, and in December of the same year the new DC Studios had already decided to continue without him.

And here comes the part that we like. There are actors who need a uniform to take people to the couch. Cavill even takes people to films that had gone wrong at the cinema, and he does it in a suit, in a uniform, in any outfit.

It’s not Superman, we know. But it’s the name that the public continues to choose when they press play. And, apparently, the desire to see this man on screen was never the problem.

It happened on Happy Sad Confused, journalist Josh Horowitz’s interview podcast, in a conversation recorded at the Toronto Film Festival and published on September 17, 2026. It was the director’s fourth time on the program. Josh saved the evil for the end: he set up a tournament bracket with Snyder’s films, one against the other, and warned that only one would leave alive.

He complained, laughed, called it rude. And played.

300 eliminated Dawn of the Dead. Batman v Superman, in the director’s version, went by Man of Steel, and he thought it was funny that someone asked which version. Then came the one that hurt: Justice League versus Watchmen. He swore under his breath before standing with the League. Rebel Moon took out Sucker Punch, League got past Rebel Moon in the semis and BvS shipped 300.

That leaves the final that any fan of the SnyderVerse would put together: BvS against Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

I’m going to have to say Justice League.

Zack Snyder on Happy Sad Confused, 09/17/2026, at 53:35

To understand the weight, go back to 2017. Snyder left Justice League in May of that year, the film was remade by another director and arrived in theaters in November unrecognizable. Six days before the premiere there was already a petition asking for it to be cut. For years, the official answer was that there was no such cut. On March 18, 2021, it debuted on HBO Max with a four-hour duration.

So when a man looks at everything he’s done, 300, Watchmen, BvS, and chooses precisely this one, he’s not just choosing a film. You’re choosing the film that only exists because a crowd didn’t take “no” for an answer. Josh called it the dream they couldn’t stop, and Snyder agreed.

He also admitted that Watchmen deserved to go further in the bracket, and the two arranged a rematch for the next visit. Around here we already know who to bet on.

The story appeared on Happy Sad Confused, journalist Josh Horowitz’s podcast, in an interview recorded at the Toronto Film Festival and published on September 17, 2026. Josh wanted to know if there was a definitive moment when he realized that his time in that universe had ended. An email, a call, something.

It existed. But it didn’t come from any Warner office.

A little context for those who have just arrived. In May 2017, in the middle of post-production, Snyder stepped away from Justice League after a family tragedy. The studio called Joss Whedon, who rewrote and reshot much of the film. The result debuted in November of that year. The person who watched it first, inside the house, was Deborah Snyder, producer of the film and wife of the director. And she came back with a message that he repeats to this day.

You are to never see that movie.

Zack Snyder on Happy Sad Confused, 09/17/2026, at 42:40

He says that he understood everything there: that was the end, and that would be the legacy. And he obeyed. What he knows about the 2017 version arrived via meme, including a detail from the opening that fans have been commenting on for years. Right when his name appears as director, you can see a homeless man holding a sign that, from what he remembers, says something like “I tried”. He himself warns that he never went to check it out.

And then comes the phrase that explains why the movement mattered so much. Snyder says that, if he hadn’t made his Justice League, that sign would have been the end of the whole story. The last record of his years of work would be an unintentional joke in the credits of a film he didn’t recognize.

It wasn’t the end point. The November 2017 petition became a campaign, the campaign became four hours of film in 2021, and today he points to this film as the best of his career. The 2017 cut is still there, without him having seen it. It will hardly be missed.

In Happy Sad Confused, a podcast by journalist Josh Horowitz, in a conversation recorded at the Toronto Film Festival and published on September 17, 2026, the topic was rest. In his last visits to the program, the director had said that he needed some time away from superheroes after everything he had experienced at DC. Josh asked how he is today. The answer started with “a little while still” and ended with a title: The Dark Knight Returns.

For those who don’t know, it’s the miniseries that Frank Miller launched in 1986, with a 55-year-old Bruce Wayne taking on the mantle again in a rotten Gotham. It is one of the most influential comics ever published, and anyone who has seen Batman v Superman knows parts of it without knowing it. The armor, the fight in the rain, entire frames came out of those pages.

Snyder called the adaptation a holy grail for him, and explained it with a collector’s logic. He’s already filmed Watchmen, the other genre-changing 1986 comic. Doing both would be closing the pair that defines American adult comics.

It’d be hard to call [BS] on me after that.

Zack Snyder on Happy Sad Confused, 09/17/2026, at 41:15

Now, calm down. This is a declared will, not an announced project. There is no agreement with Warner or DC Studios, and he himself spoke as if he knows he has already sparked this conversation other times. Around here, the rumor of a Dark Knight with Snyder continues with a rumor seal.

But there is one detail that cheers you up. In September 2026, with an independent film at a festival, a remake of Escape from New York in line and the 300 Walking series, the man could have stopped talking. He didn’t change the conversation. He said the name of the comic, said why he wants it, and left it up in the air. Those who are far from a universe don’t talk like that.

As a bonus, he talked about what he’s been reading: Dead Samurai, zombies in feudal Japan. Anyone who saw Madrugada dos Mortos and Army of the Dead understands right away.

The conversation was on Happy Sad Confused, journalist Josh Horowitz’s podcast, recorded at the Toronto Film Festival and published on September 17, 2026. Josh recalled that the director had already touched on the subject days before, in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, and asked him to clarify it once and for all.

First, the context. Snyder built the DC cinema universe starting with Man of Steel, in 2013. He left in the middle of Justice League in 2017. In October 2022, James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios and started everything over from scratch, with another Superman, who debuted in July 2025. In other words: the character he cast, dressed and filmed for years now belongs to someone else.

That’s where the answer comes from. He said it’s a personal issue. That he trusts Gunn’s aesthetics and his reading, that the guy has a very unique way of making films. The problem is not with the screen. It’s in the person who sits in the armchair: for them, it comes with too much baggage.

I want success for them.

Zack Snyder on Happy Sad Confused, 09/17/2026, at 43:50

What he knows about the new DCU arrives in the same way that Whedon’s cut arrived: in a meme, on the X feed. He said this with a laugh.

Notice the size of the gesture. It was the easiest time in the world for a jab, with the microphone open and the entire internet waiting. He chose to cheer in public for whoever got his seat. It’s possible to disagree with a lot of DC Studios’ decisions, and here we disagree with a lot of them. But that’s class.

And for those who understand cinema as something you do all your life, it makes perfect sense. Nobody asks a musician to go watch another band play the album he couldn’t finish.

The Last Photograph had its first public screening at the Toronto Film Festival, and hours later Zack Snyder sat down with journalist Josh Horowitz, from the Happy Sad Confused podcast, to talk about the reception. The interview came out on September 17, 2026. In Josh’s description, the film follows two men on a journey into the river, in the style of Apocalypse Now: a lost photographer and a man looking to settle accounts after a family tragedy.

The project is more than two decades old. It already had a budget of 50 million dollars within Warner, it already had another director, it already had other stars. It never came out, because it was the middle film: too small to be a blockbuster, too expensive to be cheap. The break came when the feature film about the UFC was shelved. He saved a little money, called his friends and went to film.

It’s the smallest budget of his life, by far, and the amount is still a secret. The account closed because he accumulated roles: he was director of photography and camera operator. And he discovered that he prefers it that way. He said it’s more intimate, less tedious, and that he’s more interested in the film when he’s responsible for each frame. The experience became a personal test: did he still know how to make films without the giant machine around him?

If I have a camera and an actor, I can make a movie.

Zack Snyder at Happy Sad Confused, 09/17/2026, at 15:00

The critics were split, as they always are with him. Fans loved it, part of the press hated it. And Snyder is at peace: he said he read a review criticizing the film before he even saw it, and thought it was great, because indifference is the only reaction he doesn’t accept. He also took the opportunity to dismantle the idea that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Kitsch, in the noble sense of the word, is his favorite genre, and it is in the DNA of everything he has filmed.

It was his first festival since Berlin, when he took 300 and heard from the German press that he was a fascist filmmaker. This time he came out laughing.

The film is looking for a distributor, it wants a big screen, and the cut shown is the final one. When it arrives, we’ll see it together.

The subject appeared on Happy Sad Confused, the podcast by journalist Josh Horowitz, in a conversation recorded at the Toronto Film Festival and published on September 17, 2026. For those who haven’t seen the original: in 1981, John Carpenter imagined a Manhattan transformed into a maximum security prison, and sent Kurt Russell wearing an eye patch, the anti-hero Snake Plissken, into it to rescue the president. It became a classic.

Snyder told how he will treat the material. The plot continues in 1997, the future seen from 1981. And he included a fan tribute: the war between the United States police and crime broke out, in his account, on July 9, 1981, which he points out as the date on which Carpenter’s film arrived in theaters. From then on, in his words, it’s practically Escape from New York. He sees the story as the perfect mix of kitsch and camp, and as a government satire made fresh again.

Regarding who Snake will be, total silence. As for what Snake will be like, none.

He better look like Snake or I’ll walk out.

Zack Snyder on Happy Sad Confused, 09/17/2026, at 30:45

There is a name in an open campaign for the film. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who was the Comedian in Watchmen and Thomas Wayne in Batman v Superman, told Josh that he’s always asking for a role. Snyder confirmed, laughing, that his friend won’t let go of him. And he returned the affection: he said that Morgan is one of those actors who handles an entire story, not just a corner.

Then came the bonus for those who know the comics. In Flashpoint, it is Thomas Wayne who becomes Batman. Josh asked if the teasing that Snyder made to Morgan on the set of BvS, insinuating that it would one day happen, were part of a real plan. The answer came short: of course, it could have been.

One more piece of what the SnyderVerse would be. And yet another reason to keep an eye on the cast of Escape from New York.

Zack Snyder spoke about this on Happy Sad Confused, journalist Josh Horowitz’s podcast, in an interview recorded at the Toronto Film Festival and published on September 17, 2026. Josh took advantage of 20 years of 300 to make the director open the entire drawer of projects. There was a lot of stuff in there.

Starting with what fans charge most. Sucker Punch came out in 2011, reassembled by the studio, and Snyder has never hidden the fact that his version is different. He said that every time he calls Warner asking to release it, he hears the same explanation: he has to wait for certain licenses to expire, because releasing the new cut would devalue the version that someone already bought to show. He himself distrusts the excuse. But his position has not changed.

Definitely on the docket.

Zack Snyder on Happy Sad Confused, 09/17/2026, at 37:30

Not long, including: he needs to call the actresses back to re-record some lines.

In 300, the new thing is the series. The TV prequel is in development, he described the phase as very exciting and said he should direct a part. About the plot, not a word, because it is not authorized.

And there’s the story of the script who ran away from home. They asked him for a sequel to 300. He went researching, fell in love with something else and came back with a love story between Alexander the Great and Hephaestion, who ended up leaving the 300 universe. It’s called Blood and Ashes, the text is his, and he says he can still film it.

The most unexpected project is The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand’s novel about an architect who refuses to bend. It became a limited series of 12 episodes, he has been writing since 2018 and already has 10 ready, using as a guide the original 310-page script that the author herself wrote for the 1949 film. He sold the series to two companies. The two called it quits a week later. For him, this just proves that it’s worth doing.

In the rest of the queue: the UFC film waits for the league to settle into its new home, Paramount, and there is a project that touches on the myth of King Arthur, his old passion for Excalibur.

For those who hear every year that Snyder is done, the man’s schedule tells a different story.

Zack Snyder has already told the story behind the casting of almost everyone: Cavill, Affleck, Gal Gadot. Lois was missing. Journalist Josh Horowitz resolved this on the director’s fourth visit to Happy Sad Confused, in an interview recorded at the Toronto Film Festival and published on September 17, 2026. He played two names that were circulating at the time of Man of Steel, back in 2011: Kristen Stewart and Zoe Saldaña. Did any of them come close?

Zoe has arrived. Snyder confirmed that she almost got the role and that the decision hurt, because he loves the actress and thinks she enters any scene with strength. But on the other side was Amy Adams.

Amy was just like Amy.

Zack Snyder on Happy Sad Confused, 09/17/2026, at 39:40

The explanation that follows is a quick climbing lesson. Amy Adams was, on purpose, the most obvious choice possible: America’s sweetheart, only with an attitude. The risk of the obvious is that it comes out flat. What he decided, according to him, is that she is enough of an actress to take the obvious and deliver something else. You think you made the predictable choice, and the way the person does it still turns out better than you expected.

Anyone who has reviewed Man of Steel and BvS knows what he’s talking about. Amy’s Lois is no decoration: she discovers Clark’s identity alone, before anyone else, in the first film.

The conversation even went through Krypton. Josh said that he is passionate about the opening of Man of Steel and asked if there was a plan for a spin-off with Russell Crowe’s Jor-El. There was a small conversation about a prequel with Zod and Jor-El in the early days. Snyder treated it as a fun idea that didn’t go through.

It’s on the list of what could have been. This list, on SnyderVerse, is long, and that’s why we keep it here on the site.

The closest thing to an official reaction was on The Preston & Steve Show, on 9/1/2026, when Snyder himself said he loves the Dark Knight rumors. This is him commenting on the buzz, not confirming the project.

What is a fact is the month he had. The visit to Warner on 08/07/2026, recorded on his Instagram, in which he was received like a hero, with the Excalibur session covered by ComingSoon and CinePOP. The stint at Preston & Steve. And The Last Photograph in Toronto.

The board around it is also a fact: David Ellison’s Paramount buying Warner Bros. Discovery, announced on 02/27/2026, and Gal Gadot saying in public that she will return if Zack returns.

The house rule applies here: a rumor remains marked as a rumor until someone puts their name in the signature. When it becomes fact, we will update this page with the date and source.