In early 2021, noted DC director Zack Snyder finally had the opportunity to share his vision for the DC Extended Universe's team-up efforts with Zack Snyder's Justice League, which debuted on HBO Max. He delivered a four-hour version of 2017's Justice League with only his work on the movie being utilized, making a profound impact on the DC fandom upon its release.
During the lead-up to Zack Snyder's Justice League, fans learned more about the unfortunate situation behind the theatrical cut of the film that featured Joss Whedon as the replacement director. On top of the project being regarded as one of the worst superhero outings in history, Whedon's reported actions on set sent the entire company and the former cast into a downward spiral.
In the two years since things really came to a head with Warner Bros' Justice League issue, the situation is still a major talking point as the Snyderverse remains popular in news streams and on social media. Now, it's even made its way into one of the most popular superhero shows outside of the Marvel and DC worlds - and with such an impact that Snyder himself even responded to it.
Zack Snyder Shares The Boys' Justice League Tribute
Justice League director Zack Snyder took to Twitter to share his reaction to an in-universe tribute to the Snyder Cut from Amazon's The Boys.
The official Vought International Twitter page, the main antagonistic organization in The Boys, shared a trailer for an in-universe movie called Dawn of the Seven, which is billed as "The Bourke Cut." The show's Adam Bourke writes and directs this movie only for the script to be rewritten by another writer named Joss, a nod to what happened when Joss Whedon took over the directing job from Snyder on Justice League in the real world.
Snyder shared the trailer on his Twitter page, congratulating the fictional Adam Bourke for his work and saying how excited he is to see the vision come to life:
"Congratulations to Director Bourke. Excited to see your vision realized."
Snyder also directed a reboot of Dawn of the Dead in 2004 along with 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, both of which Dawn of the Seven paid homage to with its title.
Amazon also released a poster for the movie, which took inspiration from the poster for Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame:
Justice League Meets Avengers Meets The Boys
While Zack Snyder's future with the DC universe is still unclear, his passion for the Justice League characters and his work on nearly every DCEU film remains to this date. Seeing this tribute from The Boys was unquestionably a fun thing for him to see, as well as something poignant with it mirroring the Joss Whedon debacle so closely in-universe.
This also isn't the first time The Boys has tied back to real-world franchises, as its showrunner took a stab at the A-team tease during the final battle of Avengers: Endgame in October 2020. Additionally, Richard Madden compared his own team in Eternals to The Boys in July 2021, as he looked at the Amazon show as something his own movie could take inspiration from with its characters.
For Snyder, this simply comes as another mark of success for him as his work on Zack Snyder's Justice League continues its run of popularity in the world of superhero movies. Seeing a program as popular as The Boys pay tribute to it is no small feat, and with the current changes in management at Warner Bros, Snyder's history with the DC world remains as prominent as ever.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is available to stream on HBO Max. Season 3 of The Boys begins streaming on Amazon Prime on June 3.
