Aquaman may finally reveal what Zack Snyder’s mysterious “Unite the Seven” tagline attached to the characters first reveal during the production of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice actually means. While many originally assumed it was a reference to the seven founding members of the Justice League, as the cast for the team-up it became apparent that there were only going to be six members in the first movie. The “Unite the Seven” tagline was used in numerous theories to suggest there was still a surprise character reveal, particularly Green Lantern.
Following Zack Snyder’s departure, the DCEU has been in a state of uncertainty as Justice League saw massive changes to adjust the tone and story. Snyder’s Justice League sequel was also dropped from the future slate of movies, so it was easy to figure that “Unite the Seven” was just another aspect of Synder’s original plan that had been scrapped like the alternate Knightmare timeline and Darkseid. But now, thanks to some early promotion from Aquaman, it looks like maybe the line was never a reference to Snyder’s Justice League at all, but a set-up for the eventual Aquaman movie, before James Wan even came aboard.
The information is similar to some initial theories that maybe instead of seven Justice League members, it was referring to the seven seas. While that’s not exactly the confirmation we got, it’s pretty close. Thanks to the first wave of marketing, we now know that Aquaman will feature seven underwater kingdoms. As the eventual king of Atlantis, it makes sense that Aquaman would be charged to unite these kingdoms.
If that is indeed the meaning of the tagline, it’s another major clue that the DCEU may have been more mapped out than many gave it credit for. The rush to Justice League was often painted as DC abandoning any sense of planning or pacing and simply trying to get an Avengers level team-up out the door, but as we’ve seen with some methodical setups in Snyder’s previous DCEU movies, there was a plan in place, at one point encompassing a 5 part superman arc, with Snyder also setting up stories for other movies like The Flash and Aquaman.
While Justice League’s reshoots and the rest of the DCEU initially appeared to be taking a strong stance against the story and style established by Snyder, it seems like that push might not be as strong under Walter Hamada as it was under Geoff Johns. Both Snyders (Zack and Deborah) are back involved in producing Wonder Woman 1984, and Snyder has also been supportive of both Wonder Woman and Aquaman on social media, his first public support of the DCEU - outside of Snyder Cut teases - since stripping his Twitter profile of Justice League mentions.
It’s clear that many value Snyder’s creative input behind the scenes, as his fingerprints will now be on at least Aquaman and Wonder Woman 1984 in some capacity, but it’s doubtful he’ll ever be back in a directorial capacity. At least any time soon. His name is too polarizing to be attached to the franchise at this point as it tries to gain more public support, but with the Elseworld style “DC Dark” or “DC Black” label coming in the near future, there may be a place for him to participate in non-canon lower budget comic book installments in the future.
- Aquaman Release Date: 2018-12-21 Shazam! Release Date: 2019-04-05 Wonder Woman 2 Release Date: 2020-12-25
