Zack Snyder Has His Harshest Words Yet For Warner Bros.

Director Zack Snyder has been very gentlemanly when talking about his conflicts with Warner Bros. over his vision for the DC Extended Universe, but in a recent interview, he allowed a little bit of negativity to come through. For most fans, it's about time.

Snyder has a right to be annoyed. After the lukewarm response to "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and studio anxiety over his cut of "Justice League" — a project he left after the tragic death of his daughter — the studio chose to take its portfolio of superheroes in a different direction without Snyder. Then, looking to boost its fledgling streaming service HBO Max, Warner Bros.' acceded to fan pressure and allowed Snyder to complete his director's cut of "Justice League," which was released in March to very positive fan response and seemingly very good viewer numbers for HBO Max.

The success of "Zack Snyder's Justice League" has naturally led fans to lobby for Warner Bros. to reverse course and #RestoreTheSnyderverse with more Snyder-directed DC movies. Snyder has said he would love to do more, but ultimately it's up to the studio, and they don't seem interested. WarnerMedia CEO Ann Sarnoff even said it's not gonna happen, in so many words. Now, after months of being polite to Warner Bros., in a recent interview Snyder had some harsh words for the studio and their thanks-but-no-thanks response to the Snyderverse.

In an interview with YouTube channel Jake's Takes promoting his upcoming Netflix movie "Army of the Dead," Snyder was asked about Warner Bros.' public statements indicating that the studio is done with Snyder.

Snyder answered that the studio is obviously not interested in his take on the characters now — "Warner Bros. has been aggressively anti-Snyder, if you will," he said — but that could change, because they weren't interested in his take on "Justice League," either, and look what happened. Snyder said he still loves the characters and the universe — "It's glorious IP" — so he'd do more if he could. He thinks the only thing that can be done for the restoration is for fans to keep advocating for the Snyderverse.

For the uninitiated, the Snyderverse refers to the five-movie series initiated by "Man of Steel," and continued in "Batman v Superman" and "Justice League." Snyder has said he planned two additional sequels to conclude the long story arc, and several new scenes added to "Zack Snyder's Justice League" certainly seem to set this up.

"I would hope that cooler heads would prevail with [Warner Bros.] and that they would see that there's this massive fandom that wants more of that," he said. "But who knows what they'll do?"

It seems pretty clear that Warner Bros.' plans for the future of DC don't include Snyder — for example, the studio is developing a Black Superman movie with screenwriter Ta-Nehisi Coates and producer J.J. Abrams, one of Hollywood's most powerful people — but as the saying goes, in Hollywood, "nobody knows anything."