Although James Gunn’s DCU is already several projects in, with the streaming series Lanterns currently releasing episodes weekly and performing well so far, DC’s R-rated horror movie Clayface just around the corner, and next year’s Man of Tomorrow well underway, there’s no question that DC fans are still heavily debating the merits of Gunn’s DCU versus what Zack Snyder did with what many call the Snyderverse. For some Snyder loyalists, Gunn’s DCU will never live up to what Snyder did before, whereas some Gunn fans feel that he is a much needed change of pace. There’s been plenty of speculation over the years that there has been tension between the two filmmakers themselves (and a recent Gal Gadot interview suggested there were at least some difficult conversations and dynamics in terms of the Snyderverse cast and the DCU), but that’s only ever been speculative.
That remains the case, and Snyder has continually confirmed that he and Gunn are friends, but Snyder did recently get some backlash for revealing that he has yet to see Gunn’s 2025 movie Superman, saying, “I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.” At the time he made those comments, Snyder added that he still wished Gunn well. Even so, the subsequent backlash became mixed with ample rumors and speculation that this meant there was actually bad blood there. Nothing of that nature has been confirmed, but Snyder has just given yet another interview that touches upon his DCEU versus Gunn’s DCU, and his new comments defending his decision not to watch Gunn’s Superman have led to even more chatter about what’s really going on behind the scenes.
Speaking with Josh Horowitz on his show Happy, Sad, Confused, Snyder once again addressed the question of whether he’d seen Gunn’s Superman, but he seemed to have changed his tune slightly from the last time he was asked, when he said he just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. This time, Snyder said, “Honestly, it’s just a personal thing for me. I want success for them, and I think that, you know, I trust James’s aesthetic and his take…He has a very particular way of making movies and looking at things. So, yeah, it’s just a difficulty…It’s just got a lot of baggage.” In this same interview, Snyder said “100%” that he and Gunn are friends, so while this doesn’t undercut that previous message at all, it does suggest that there’s more to him not watching Gunn’s Superman than just not getting around to it, as he previously said.
Rather, it seems, as he said in this interview, that there’s just a lot wrapped up in these DC characters and projects for him, and that makes sense. Whether there’s bad blood behind the scenes or not, and no matter who is involved in that or isn’t, these DC stories were something that Snyder worked on for years and clearly felt very passionate about, and it’s not exactly a secret that the transition away from the Snyderverse and towards the DCU was a bit messy. In all likelihood, Snyder’s new comments will lead to a new wave of backlash, but in truth, there isn’t anything too surprising about what he said; he’s just not in a place where he wants to watch the DCU films, and maybe he never will be.
