WarnerMedia’s Ann Sarnoff on ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ and DC’s Future

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Instead, Sarnoff believes that the future of DC is more than just movies. She’s excited about a multi-platform future, one that sees Batman, Superman, the Flash, and other Justice League members popping up on streaming shows, video games, television spinoffs, and big screen outings. It’s a vision that echoes what Marvel has been doing with its Avengers characters, taking superheroes like the Vision, Hawkeye and Loki, who have previously appeared only in movies, and giving them streaming shows of their own. The WarnerMedia Studios chief is also excited about the diverse range of creators she’s been enlisting to tell some of these stories, which includes tapping “Between the World and Me” author Ta-Nehisi Coates to write a Superman film or developing “Blue Beetle,” which marks the company’s first Latinx superhero movie.

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What are your plans going forward for DC?

We’ve got an incredible group of creators — television series creators, Max series creators, feature film creators — who are basically broadening the base of the talent that we work with on DC because we’re so excited about the potential to build out the DC multiverse. It’s one of the reasons why I was hired almost two years ago. The before-and-after was it was a very siloed organization with no connectivity between the businesses. DC was being developed, but in a kind of monolithic way in each division. My mantra coming in was to make it bigger and broader and we really want to surprise and delight the fans with more connective tissue across the various media and platforms. I’m talking movies, HBO Max, television and our games division.

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The campaign for #ReleaseTheSnyderCut has moved into a new phase. It’s now #RestoreTheSnyderVerse. What’s your reaction to this new campaign?

I appreciate that they love Zack’s work and we are very thankful for his many contributions to DC. We’re just so happy that he could bring his cut of the “Justice League” to life because that wasn’t in the plan until about a year ago. With that comes the completion of his trilogy. We’re very happy we’ve done this, but we’re very excited about the plans we have for all the multi-dimensional DC characters that are being developed right now.

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Will there be more of these director’s cuts? Will we see David Ayer’s cut of “Suicide Squad”?

We won’t be developing David Ayer’s cut.

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Looking at the DC slate, there seems to be an emphasis on creating opportunities for diverse creators and and characters. You’ve got a Latino superhero movie with “Blue Beetle,” Sasha Calle becoming the first Latinx actress to portray Supergirl, and Ta-Nehisi Coates writing a Superman movie. Is there a concerted effort to take the brand in a more inclusive direction?

It’s super important to me and it’s in line with what we want to do. We want to branch out and let creators interpret parts of the universe in unique and special ways. Ta-Nehisi working on Superman is incredibly exciting, I can’t wait to see what he comes up with, and [director] Andy Muschietti on “The Flash” or Patty Jenkins. Matt Reeves just finished filming “The Batman” against the odds of COVID. We’re so excited to finish that movie and have people see it, because Matt’s take on Batman is different than other takes. Even familiar characters have lots of possibilities.

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