DCEU is losing the comic-live-action film fight to Marvel Studios, but “Army of the Dead” director Zack Snyder has shown that he has what they need to draw level; will Warner Bros. Pictures let him save the franchise?
Many have made the mistake of thinking that what the DCEU needs is to make ‘light’ films, think “Shazam!”, to compete with Marvel Studios. This is a mistake because it will mean fighting the competition on familiar ground. A battle that DCEU cannot win.
Fans of both franchises have since come to terms with the clear distinction that Marvel Studios is to lighthearted themes as DCEU is to grim. Despite both trying to break the stereotype with experimental releases, it still hangs over them.
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In the famous words of former Chess World Champion and Grandmaster Mikhail Tal, “You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” This is what the DCEU must do, they have the characters, dedicated fans, and now, they only have to let Zack Snyder do it with the #SnyderVerse.
In addition to being a master of the grim theme and wanton destruction fight scenes which we all saw in “Man of Steel” (2013), he has another weapon in his arsenal: the genuine love of fans.
This is something that Marvel has been able to wield all these years, and it is paying off tremendously. From the now-iconic ‘Avengers, assemble!’ scene in “Avengers: Endgame” to the ‘Wakanda Forever!’ slogan and gesture from “Black Panther”, the franchise is not going away anytime soon. It recently announced ten coming films between 2021 and 2023, and all of them look like must-see releases.
No DCEU film in recent years has earned this level of love until “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” in 2021. It will be blasphemous to even compare it to the examples mentioned about but it gave rise to the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse movement, which is something better than nothing.
Read more: Will Warner Bros. restore the #SnyderVerse? See how Zack Snyder’s Justice League performed
Additionally, Snyder and his team’s promotion of “Army of the Dead” has been impressive so far and it is giving fans something they can tweet about and anticipate just like the director cut of Justice League gave them early this year.
He is arguably Warner Bros. Pictures’ best soldier and starting experimentally with completing the #SnyderVerse, we will see if Zack Snyder can indeed save the DCEU. Something to anticipate for all comic and superhero fans. As for “Army of the Dead”, we get to see how it fares soon when it hit cinemas in the United States on 14 May 2021 and then, Netflix on 21 May.
Regardless of the commercial outcome, as Stan Lee always insisted, it is the love of fans that matter.
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Zack Snyder can do it.
Completely agree.
Look at what he did with Justice League.