The James Gunn and Zack Snyder fandoms may be at war online, but the two DC figureheads joined forces for a surprise cameo on the latest episode of Rick and Morty to jokingly mock each others’ takes on Superman.
Warning! Spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 8, Episode 7, Ricker Than Fiction, which aired Sunday, July 6 on Adult Swim, follow.
In the episode, Gunn and a beefy Snyder meet in a Warner Bros. cafeteria and discuss the upcoming DC Universe reboot kickstarter Superman.
“Just saw your new cut of Superman,” Snyder begins. “And word of advice, he’s the ‘Man of Steel,’ not the ‘Man of Conversation.’ Do more shots of him punching!”
“And here’s a secret move,” Snyder continues, “start the punch at regular speed and then you’re gonna ramp it down.”
“It’s not a f***ing secret!” Gunn responds, angrily, before he apologizes. “I’m sorry Zack Snyder, I shouldn’t be lashing out at you, your biceps are the size of my head.”
“Yes, but so is my heart.”
The pair then talk about a “fan” called Rick Sanchez, who used a portal to sneak under the lot. Gunn wonders if Hollywood is losing touch with the audience. Snyder then offers words of reassurance. “That’s the guy that sealed Nolan in the giant bookcase to quote unquote ‘punish’ him for Interstellar,” Snyder says. “He doesn’t represent real fans. He’s just the smartest man in the universe. Don’t sweat it. He can’t do what we do. Probably.”
it’s actually them dude i’m cryingggg😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/8kmoxtYTz9
— *leslie (@LE5B0B0MB) July 7, 2025
Snyder’s gentle ribbing of Gunn’s Superman (“Man of Conversation”) is a nod to a 10-minute scene in which Clark and Lois talk about geopolitics and whether Superman should have stopped a war on foreign soil.
In a recent interview with The Times, Gunn admitted the scene “is definitely the most unusual thing that we put in the movie.”
“Yes, it’s about politics,” Gunn said. “But on another level it’s about morality. Do you never kill no matter what — which is what Superman believes — or do you have some balance, as Lois believes? It’s really about their relationship and the way different opinions on basic moral beliefs can tear two people apart.
“But, there is also a flying dog in the film who wears a cape. And come on, Clark has glasses and people don’t know who he is. He can hold up a building. He’s wearing a costume. If I flew around saving people I wouldn’t make myself a costume I had to change into every time. There’s something peculiar about a person who makes a costume. Clark is a peculiar guy.”
Meanwhile, Snyder’s Rick and Morty cameo sees him in a self-deprecating mood, highlighting his tendency to overdo it with dramatic slow-motion in his action sequences. Snyder was of course the steward of the DCEU, starring Henry Cavill as Superman, before Warner Bros. handed DC Studios over to Gunn and co-CEO Peter Safran to reboot the entire universe with David Corenswet in the leading role.
Gunn and Snyder’s Rick and Morty cameo, which we now know was behind the viral photo of the pair from February, disarms the ongoing online war between the two sets of fandoms: those who support the ‘Snyderverse’ and want to see it return, and those who are happy to see Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe take shape.
The internet has at times taken this virtual battle too far. Last month, mods looking after the SnyderCut subreddit deleted a post calling on fans to review bomb the Superman movie and issued a statement to their community members.
Gunn had responded to the post, which issued a call to arms to “stand up and fight for SnyderVerse on July 11” (the release date of Superman). “Gunn fired the first shot and killed the Snyderverse and here is our chance to take the fight back to him,” the post said.
After a Threads user brought the post to Gunn’s attention, he replied to dismiss its impact on Superman’s potential success. “Lol I think we’ll survive,” he said. “I’m not sure the eight people that listen 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.”
Always a pleasure catching up with my friend @ZackSnyder, consummate filmmaker (and a doubly consummate storyteller!) pic.twitter.com/kkl1qZtNup
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 20, 2025
This wasn’t the first time the infamous Snyder fandom hit the headlines. Snyderverse fans played a part in Warner Bros.’ 2021 release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League, and, last year, Suicide Squad 2016 director David Ayer was forced to respond to an online backlash against his support for Gunn’s Superman and its debut trailer.
Ayer, whose widely panned Suicide Squad movie formed a part of Snyder’s now defunct DCEU, had initially taken to X/Twitter to ask fans not to launch the latest ‘Ayer Cut’ campaign at the same time as the Superman trailer release date. Ayer, clearly exacerbated by what he’d witnessed on social media as a result, announced he was taking a “step back” from the discourse.
Gunn touched briefly on the subject of some within the Snyderverse fandom rooting for Superman and his new DCU to fail in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.
“I don’t mind it,” he said. “I think it’s good. I think you don’t wanna have everybody root 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.”
Indeed, in 2023, Gunn shared that Snyder had reached out to him to “express his support” about his choices regarding the new DCU.
Also in The Times profile, Gunn said he’s well aware some people will take offense at his new Superman movie “just because it is about kindness.”
Image credit: Adult Swim.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
