Zack Snyder’s Justice League’s presence on Twitter in 2021 proves that Warner Bros. made a huge mistake with its handling of the Snyderverse. Even before Zack Snyder’s Justice League became a reality, the way that the company handled Snyder's films had been a major source of controversy among fans who believed that the studio could do better. A lot has happened in 2021 to show why that was a mistake on WB's part, and the Twitter data goes even further to prove that point.
After Joss Whedon’s Justice League was released to largely negative reception and information about behind-the-scenes drama and cut content began to surface, fans began to heavily push for Warner Bros. to release the original version of the film that Snyder intended to be released. The #RestoreTheSnyderVerse movement eventually did bear fruit when it was not only confirmed that the alleged “Snyder Cut” did exist, but that it would be released on HBO Max in 2021. The year leading up to its release was rife with discussion about the film, and the months following the incredible success of its release kept it going with a variety of topics—chief among them being whether or not Warner Bros. was right to let the Snyderverse end.
If nothing else, the Twitter data for Zack Snyder’s Justice League gives credence to the idea that they made a mistake with the Snyderverse. According to Twitter’s data, Zack Snyder’s Justice League was the most discussed movie in all of 2021, even beating out major topics of discussion such as Dune and Spider-Man: No Way Home, somewhat surprisingly. The fact that the movie was able to garner such a large amount of interest from people shows that there would be merit to marketing towards its supporters, yet Warner Bros. doesn’t appear to want to capitalize on that.
In Warner Bros.'s defense, it makes sense why they would want to steer away from the framework of the Snyderverse. After having back-to-back critical and/or box office failures in both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and 2016's Suicide Squad, it was clear that Snyder’s vision wasn’t working the way they wanted it to work, and the failure of Joss Whedon’s Justice League was likely the straw that broke the camel’s back. Following that, the DC Extended Universe went through something of a soft reboot in that the events of the Snyderverse did happen, but the movies going forward weren’t going to be tied down to them. Overall, that decision has been a successful one, with movies such as Aquaman, Shazam!, and The Suicide Squad all being huge hits for the studio.
Even so, it’s clear that there’s still a definite market for the Snyderverse. The success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League shows that in spite of everything, people do want to see Snyder’s vision reach its natural conclusion, so Warner Bros.’s refusal to capitalize on that is a wasted opportunity on their part. Granted, it might make their movies confusing going forward since, again, the movies aren’t currently following the original vision of the Snyderverse, so any movies that do follow it would have to be split off into their own continuity—but something like that could easily be worked around. At the end of the day, keeping the original Snyderverse going would only be beneficial to Warner Bros., and there’s more than enough evidence to support that.
More: WB's Attempts To Bury The Snyderverse Make It More Likely To Be Restored
