SnyderCut Subreddit Issues Statement After James Gunn Dismisses Fan Calling for Mass Superman Review Bomb Campaign

The moderators of the r/SnyderCut subreddit have removed a post urging fans to review-bomb the upcoming Superman film and issued a clarification to their community.

On Monday, DC Universe head James Gunn addressed the post, which had called on supporters to “stand up and fight for the SnyderVerse on July 11.”

The original poster encouraged fans to “post spoilers everywhere,” “leave negative ratings on review platforms,” and “reserve tickets online without completing the purchase.”

“Gunn fired the first shot and killed the Snyderverse, so here is our chance to take the fight back to him,” the post concluded.

After a Threads user flagged the post to Gunn, he responded by downplaying its potential impact on Superman’s success.

“Lol, I think we’ll survive,” he wrote. “I’m not sure that eight people listening to that guy (I’m going to go out on a limb and guess it’s a guy) are going to impact the course of events.”

The r/SnyderCut moderators later explained that they removed the post approximately two hours after it was published, noting it had minimal engagement at the time. However, a screenshot of the post was already circulating on social media and had reached Gunn on Threads.

In a locked thread, the moderators distanced themselves from the original content:

“Our staff never approved that post and does not endorse what it said. This is a public subreddit, where posts do not require pre-approval. The mere appearance of a post on our sub does not represent any endorsement by us. Our moderators delete posts after they are made if they violate any of our policies or Reddit's policies. There was never any question that this post violated our policies, both explicitly and in spirit, and needed to be immediately removed.

“The post wasn't so much controversial as it was universally disapproved of. We support everyone's right to vote with their wallets by choosing not to see a movie. But we do not support any dishonesty or manipulation aimed at stopping someone else from choosing to see a movie.”

This is not the first time the Zack Snyder fandom has made headlines. Snyderverse supporters played a key role in Warner Bros.’ 2021 release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Last year, Suicide Squad (2016) director David Ayer was forced to respond to online backlash regarding his support for Gunn’s Superman and its debut trailer.

Ayer, whose widely criticized Suicide Squad film was part of Snyder’s now-defunct DCEU, initially took to X/Twitter to ask fans not to launch the latest ‘Ayer Cut’ campaign simultaneously with the Superman trailer release date. Clearly frustrated by the social media reaction, Ayer announced he was taking a “step back” from the discourse.

Gunn briefly addressed the topic of some Snyderverse fans hoping for Superman and his new DCU to fail during a recent Rolling Stone interview.

“I don’t mind it,” he said. “I think it’s good. I think you don’t want everybody rooting for you. And I have an actor who reads everything online. I won’t say who it is, but he’ll read this article, and he’ll know who it is. It’s one of the top five in Superman. And this actor gets so upset over things that people say. I said, ‘First of all, you realize that the trailer came out and [reaction] was 97, 98% positive. These people help us, because you don’t want everything to seem 100% positive.’

“It’s all right to have an opposing force every once in a while. Some of the things get ridiculous — I just know that every time something comes out, it doesn’t matter how positively received, there’s gonna be something that is of great controversy. It was great controversy that the sun caused Superman pain.”

In the same Rolling Stone interview, Gunn explained why he removed subtitles from this July’s Superman and next summer’s Supergirl.