Despite saying he's done playing Batman in the DCEU, Justice League, but the release of the Snyder Cut, rumors of Cavill's return as Superman, and Ben Affleck coming back for two more Batman appearances keep hopes of a long shot Snyderverse continuation alive.
Zack Snyder's DCEU movies were polarizing, splitting audiences and critics and making big box office splashes that didn't quite meet studio expectations. Thanks to behind-the-scenes creative conflicts and a toxic environment for the cast and crew during Justice League reshoots, Ben Affleck also stepped away from his role as Batman, including the solo movie he was writing and directing. Initially, The Flash, and will now also appear in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
There are plenty of roadblocks in the way of the Snyderverse actually getting fully restored, from Warner Bros. explicitly saying they aren't going to continue Zack Snyder's story to complications with many of the cast to Snyder having a full slate of projects at Netflix. It seems like galaxies would need to align for the Snyderverse to have another chance at being made, but if there's one lesson to learn from the last five years of Warner Bros., everything is always in flux and anything can happen, especially the unexpected.
Why Ben Affleck is ing Aquaman 2
Jason Momoa's reveal on Instagram that Ben Affleck has a role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom came as a huge surprise for a number of reasons. Not only was The Flash expected to be Affleck's last appearance in the franchise, Affleck himself even said The Flash “put a really nice finish on my experience with that character,” but also Aquaman 2 also wrapped filming in December 2021 and there hadn't been any reports of reshoots prior to Momoa's Instagram post. Affleck was never even rumored to be a part of principal photography, so the reveal that he's being added in additional photography indicates a few things about the nature of his role in the movie.
First of all, Affleck's role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is likely very small. When characters are added in reshoots like this, it's often to appear in just one or two scenes or even a post-credits scene. Adding any character in a significant capacity is hard to do late in production and requires far more resources to stitch them into the existing plot. It's certainly been done before, but only under extreme circumstances, such as Army of the Dead.
Second, some big changes to the overall DCEU schedule could give a hint as to why Affleck is being included at all. The Flash is going to heavily tap into the DC multiverse and is expected to make some major changes to the DCEU, such as the introduction of Michael Keaton's Batman into DCEU continuity. The Flash has seen numerous delays thanks to writer and director changes over the years, and its most recent release date change means The Flash's release now comes after Aquaman 2 instead of arriving first as originally planned. As a result, whatever changes The Flash makes to Affleck's Batman won't have happened yet. Michael Keaton's Batman wasn't announced to have a role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but obviously, if he did have a cameo following his introduction in The Flash, then it would make sense to replace him with Affleck since Keaton showing up wouldn't make any sense before audiences have seen The Flash.
Affleck ing Aquaman 2 Doesn't Mean The Snyderverse Is Being Restored (But It Doesn't Hurt)
Affleck's departure was just one of the many things standing in the way of the continuation of the Snyderverse, but Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom doesn't drastically change the situation. His previous comments about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the rest of Snyder's Justice League arc. Again, after Justice League Affleck said he was done playing Batman, but has now returned to the role for Zack Snyder's Justice League additional photography, The Flash, and now Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
As far as we know, following Affleck's appearance alongside Jason Momoa, the DCEU will move forward with The Flash and plans for an altered DCEU timeline, but as history has show, those plans can always change. Granted, even if Affleck's return opens the door for more Snyderverse, Affleck's change of heart towards playing the Caped Crusader pales in comparison to other roadblocks like Ray Fisher's rift with Warner Bros. over his behind-the-scenes treatment during Justice League reshoots, the current drama surrounding Ezra Miller and The Flash, and Snyder's own complicated relationship with the studio, not to mention the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery's likely concerns over the polarizing nature inherent to the Snyderverse, both on-screen and off.
Despite all these complications, it still wouldn't be prudent to say the Snyderverse will "never" see a continuation, and the Snyder Cut itself is a big example of why. For years it was said the Snyder Cut would never be released because it didn't exist, because Snyder had moved on, because Affleck didn't want to play Batman anymore, because the studio had new plans, and etc. The list of all the reasons why the Snyder Cut would never happen was longer than the script for the four-hour version of Zack Snyder's Justice League that was eventually released on HBO Max. It's understandable why the Snyder Cut's release would be seen as an impossibility, but the flaw in that logic was always a failure to predict the unpredictable.
Why WB Keeps Failing to Separate the DCEU From the Snyderverse
The death of the Snyderverse might have been a little more permanent if Warner Bros. had actually abandoned Snyder's DC movie canon with a slate of highly successful movies. If the audience's desire for these characters was being met, the demand for the Snyderverse would have been greatly diminished, but that's not what happened. The most successful post-Snyder DCEU movie is The Batman, which explicitly take place outside the DCEU. Most importantly, the central character in Snyder's five-film Snyderverse arc, Henry Cavill's Superman, hasn't had a single appearance, leaving his future story entirely untouched (and his return is in high demand).
This situation is also a part of why the campaign to release the Snyder Cut maintained a strong presence until its release. WB may have canceled plans for Snyder's movies, but since there was nothing to replace them, the next best way for audiences to get more of those versions of the characters was through the Snyder Cut. As demand for the Snyder Cut remained strong, Warner Bros. underwent a major acquisition by AT&T, WarnerMedia announced its own streaming service in HBO Max, and a global pandemic shut down most Hollywood productions, right when HBO Max needed new exclusive content to attract subscribers. In retrospect, it may look like its release was always an inevitability to some, but nobody could have predicted the seismic shifts that actually made it happen. In the same way, the continuation of the Snyderverse might look like an impossibility to many today, but Discovery merging with Warner Bros., Affleck's repeated return to play Batman, and recent rumors of Henry Cavill's Superman return show just how quickly things can change.
Even though Jim Lee confirmed there's no Snyderverse plans in place, the popularity of the Snyder Cut and the Snyderverse is still a major component of the DCEU conversation. Despite a lack of official performance metrics from Warner Bros. or HBO Max, the Snyder Cut's popularity was comparable to a number of major releases in 2021, it saw impressive sales numbers on physical media, and its recent digital release landed it above several recent 2022 releases on iTunes' top 10. Going into San Diego Comic-Con, rumors of a surprise Henry Cavill appearance to announce his return as Superman overshadowed excitement for the two DC movies being showcased, Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Black Adam, and Dwayne Johnson's Superman casting comments continued the trend after the , even though Warner Bros. hasn't announced any DCEU Superman projects.
Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movies might not have performed as well as Warner Bros. wanted at the time, but their lasting effects and the popularity of the characters he cast has made it virtually impossible for the DCEU to totally sever ties with the Snyderverse. Even The Flash's plans to alter continuity, bringing in Michael Keaton's Batman and Sasha Calle's Supergirl, doubles down on Snyder's DCEU by bringing back Michael Shannon's General Zod. No matter what the WB does to move past Zack Snyder, the Snyderverse is part of the DCEU's DNA and the things he brought to the universe have become too iconic and popular to simply be tossed aside. As Patty Jenkins said during press for Wonder Woman 1984, "DC directors tossed [Whedon's Justice League] out just as much as the fans did....I knew, when Zack was doing Justice League, where [Wonder Woman] sort of ends up. So I always tried… like, I didn’t change her suit, because I never want to… I don’t want to contradict his films."
At the end of the day, it's not just a matter of canon being maintained or one actor returning to their role for the Snyderverse to have a shot. All of those things need to happen at the same time in the near future with everyone's schedules lining up and Warner Bros. Discovery and Snyder coming to an agreement on creative freedom and budgets, and more. The odds of all of that happening are low enough that many people would classify it as a virtual impossibility, meaning it'd be irresponsible to say the Snyderverse is likely to be restored, but thanks to WB's second acquisition in five years and total reshuffling of leadership in its film divisions, the Snyder Cut's release and Ben Affleck's repeated returns to the Batman role, it'd be similarly irresponsible to say "never" when it comes to the potential of the continuation of the Snyderverse.
