After his tumultuous exit from the DCEU, many fans believed that Zack Snyder‘s Justice League movie was lost forever. That is until the Snyder Cut movement took over social media and helped bring the director’s version of the superhero movie to life.
The original Justice League movie by Joss Whedon was a disaster, to say the least, so when HBO Max released Zack Snyder’s Justice League on 18 March 2021, fans rejoiced. And why wouldn’t they? It was a success story for the director and his fans who for years were told that their efforts would amount to nothing. A pipe dream some naysayers would say.
However, a recent report from Rolling Stone alleges that fake social media accounts were responsible for a large portion of the Snyder Cut movement. In their report, Rolling Stone said that 13% of the accounts that discussed the Snyder Cut were fake – above the typical 3-5% of fake accounts cyber experts usually see. Whilst there were genuine fans who were dedicated to the movement, the report claims that their message is “amplified by a disproportionate number of bogus accounts.”
Rolling Stone also questioned staff from cybersecurity and social media intelligence firm Q5id, including chief information officer and chief technology officer Becky Wanta. According to Wanta, “There’s no question that bots were involved.”
“There are certain patterns that bots give off that we saw here. They arrive at almost the same time in huge numbers,” said Wanta. “And many times the origin of thousands or even millions of messages can be traced to a single source or two. Sometimes, they can be traced to unusual servers in remote countries. And their content will be precisely similar.”
It was also said that there were large amounts of accounts (real and fake) harassing Warner Bros. leaders, including chairman Ann Sarnoff and producer Geoff Johns. Most of the messages spread negative content about WarnerMedia not restoring the SnyderVerse.
With this new information in the light, Snyder’s future with Warner and whether or not Warner Bros would restore the ‘SnyderVerse’ remains to be seen. As the report repeatedly indicates, the fake accounts don’t invalidate the existence of genuine fans who are dedicated to Snyder and his filmmaking, but it does question just how big and influential the movement really is.
Snyder, as expected, stood by his fans: “I am grateful to both the fan community and Warner Bros. for allowing this to happen. To dwell on negativity and rumours serves no one.”
Don’t judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.
Trinity Sun
Natalie
