Zack Snyder Reveals He Still Hasn’t Watched James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ — But He’s Rooting for It Anyway

Zack Snyder is stepping back into the spotlight this week, and not with another DC blockbuster or Netflix spectacle. His passion project ‘The Last Photograph,’ a film he’s been quietly developing for over a decade, is finally making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, marking his first fully independent feature after years spent inside massive studio franchises.

The shift in scale shows in how Snyder has described making the film, embracing a stripped-down approach with no green screen, no video village, and no slow-motion shots, a deliberate departure from the visual signatures that defined his DC and ‘Rebel Moon’ work. It’s a notable reset for a filmmaker who spent nearly a decade shaping Warner Bros.’ superhero universe before moving on to a string of Netflix projects that didn’t quite land with critics the way his earlier work had.

That reset extends beyond his own filmmaking approach and into how he’s been navigating the DC franchise he left behind. In a new interview tied to the film’s TIFF debut, Snyder revealed that he still hasn’t gotten around to watching James Gunn’s ‘Superman,’ the film currently carrying the newly rebooted DC Universe forward.

“I just haven’t gotten around to it yet,” Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter, letting out a small laugh before quickly adding that he’s a supporter of Gunn’s and genuinely wants the DC division to succeed.

That kind of goodwill isn’t exactly surprising given the two directors’ history. Snyder and Gunn’s working relationship stretches back to 2004’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’ remake, and the pair have stayed in touch even as Gunn took over shaping the DC Universe’s next chapter. The two recently even appeared together in a superhero-themed episode of ‘Rick and Morty,’ trading playful, good-natured jabs at one another that made clear there’s no real animosity between them.

Snyder didn’t stop at addressing Gunn’s film during the same conversation, either. He also weighed in on why Marvel’s formula has consistently outgrossed DC’s output over the years, describing the approach as feeling like an amusement park ride, full of ups, drops, and a cruising middle section before another drop, all building toward an audience walking out saying it was crazy and awesome. He was candid that building movies around that specific structure simply never interested him creatively, even while acknowledging skipping it may have cost DC commercially.

Snyder’s new film follows an ex-DEA agent whose diplomat sibling is murdered, sending him into the South American jungle in search of his missing niece and nephew. Along the way, he enlists the help of a washed-up, drug-addicted war photographer, the only person who has actually seen the kidnappers’ faces, and the two find themselves questioning everything they believed as their journey blurs the line between reality and something far stranger.

The film stars Stuart Martin and Fra Fee alongside Costanza Andrade, with a screenplay co-written by longtime Snyder collaborator Kurt Johnstad, based on an original story by Snyder himself. Hans Zimmer returns to score the project alongside Omer Benyamin and Steven Doar, rounding out a creative team Snyder has relied on across much of his career.

Shot in Colombia and still seeking a distributor, ‘The Last Photograph’ represents something genuinely different for Snyder, a smaller, more personal story free from the franchise expectations that have defined most of his recent output. Whether this indie detour reshapes how audiences view his filmmaking going forward, or simply serves as a passion-project palate cleanser before his next big swing, remains to be seen.

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