It's The End Of An Era For Zack Snyder's DC Universe

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Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman holding a spear in Zack Snyder's Justice League

Published Aug 20, 2026, 8:30 PM EDT

Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers.

Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism.

Zack Snyder's DCEU has already ended, but a new DC project has put the final nail in the coffin of the Snyderverse. Though the exact end date of the DCEU is rather murky, as some DCEU projects like Peacemaker season 1 and Blue Beetle now exist in James Gunn's DCU, the Snyderverse is over. Zack Snyder himself stepped away from DC in 2017, though he released his director's cut of Zack Snyder's Justice League in 2021.

While the DCEU's movies were very hit or miss, from the highs of Wonder Woman to the lows of Suicide Squad, a lot of fans still miss Snyder's gritty and grounded take on the DC universe. There was some hope that some of Snyder's ideas and the foreshadowing he put into his films could survive in the DCU, possibly through a non-canonical Elseworlds-style spinoff movie or show, but there has been no word at all about that possibility.

The DCU's most recent project, Lanterns, also sparked some hope that at least parts of Snyder's vision could survive in James Gunn's new franchise. The Green Lantern show is a grounded detective procedural that has been compared to True Detective, after all, and it seems to be mimicking Snyder's style in terms of Hal Jordan's militaristic suit and the show's generally darker and more mature tone. While Lanterns is quite similar to Snyder's style, it also unfortunately acts as the end of an era for one of the DCEU's most disappointing unfulfilled promises.

James Gunn Finally Made A Standalone Green Lantern Project Long After Zack Snyder Tried To Set Up John Stewart

Green Lantern never appeared in Zack Snyder's DCEU, though not for lack of trying. Ryan Reynolds' 2011 Green Lantern movie wasn't technically part of the Snyderverse, and none of the Green Lanterns ever showed up in the franchise again. Snyder did, however, want to include a cameo appearance from John Stewart at the end of Zack Snyder's Justice League, and he wanted to start setting up the Green Lanterns for future Justice League movies.

Snyder actually had Wayne T. Carr film a cameo appearance as John Stewart in Snyder's own driveway. Warner Brothers, however, told Snyder he couldn't include the cameo as the company had plans for future Green Lanterns stories and wanted to introduce the character in another project, so Snyder replaced John Stewart's scene with a Martian Manhunter cameo instead. While it never saw the light of day, Snyder clearly wanted to do something with the Green Lanterns.

Zack Snyder never got to produce his take on the Green Lanterns, but James Gunn and the DCU have. Now, the DCU has its own standalone Green Lantern project in Lanterns, an eight-episode series that is exploring John Stewart's origins, the inner workings of the Green Lantern Corps, and more. It's much more than the simple cameo Snyder had in mind, and it's a sign that the DCU has already surpassed the DCEU, at least in terms of the Green Lanterns.

Lanterns Is Proof That Snyder's Vision For DC Is Finished

Wayne T. Carr as John Stewart in the Snyderverse

Lanterns and the fact that James Gunn was able to get a standalone Green Lantern project off the ground so quickly is proof that Zack Snyder's vision for the DCU is officially done. Any chance the Snyderverse had of continuing on in the DCU, either through an Elseworlds spinoff or simply as inspiration, is over. Gunn and the DCU are forging ahead with their own plans and their own takes on DC characters, and Snyder's vision for the future can't come back.

After the failure of Green Lantern 2011, Warner Brothers never trusted Snyder with the Green Lanterns, having become quote "ring shy" because of it. There were also behind the scenes considerations, like Warner Bros.'s merger with Discovery, that ended any plans of a Green Lantern solo project early. Clearly, Warner Bros. is no longer ring shy, and it's more willing to let Gunn have free reign with the DCU than Snyder did with the DCEU.

It's also a bit symbolic that Lanterns is coming out so quickly for the DCU's tenure. The DCU is only two movies and a handful of shows in, having "officially" begun with Superman 2025, yet the Green Lanterns are already here in live-action. Green Lantern was supposed to be a bid for the future of the Snyderverse, a tease of what Justice League stories to come had to offer, but it never came to fruition. Now, Lanterns and the DCU aren't just teasing John Stewart, they gave him his own show.