Zack Snyder’s Second Act
With Twilight of the Gods, Hollywood’s most divisive auteur takes on a new enterprise.
Twilight of the Gods is an intriguing first for Zack Snyder. Netflix’s latest adult-focused animated series sees him distilling familiar themes into a classic (if ambitious) underdog story. It might be the filmmaker’s most realized work yet, which is why the phrase that kicks off the opening credits, “Zack Snyder presents,” seems so fitting.
For the past few years, Snyder leaned hard into creating original, cinematic universes. Twilight of the Gods could be one of many, joining Army of the Dead and Rebel Moon as a lucrative genre property. But Snyder also can’t personally be around for every step of production. Though he directs the first and last episodes of the series, he leaves the rest to a capable team. This makes Twilight of the Gods a collaboration in the truest sense, and it could signal a pivot into a more hands-off role for Snyder and his production company, Stone Quarry.
To hear Snyder himself tell it, though, he hasn’t read much into the promise of “Zack Snyder presents.”
“I don’t think that’s as purposeful as it just... is,” Snyder tells Inverse over Zoom alongside his two producing partners, Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller. The director jokes that it sounds more like a home furnishing line: “Zack Snyder presents this wallpaper,” or “Zack Snyder presents hand-sculpted teapots.”
“Zack does do his own pottery now,” Deborah offers with a laugh.
While the possibilities are humorous enough, Snyder and his team remain 100% focused on storytelling. Twilight of the Gods may be ambitious on-screen, but behind the scenes, Stone Quarry is following its gut and building its catalog one good story at a time.
A tale as old as time
Twilight of the Gods takes classic Norse myth to adapt an intimate underdog story.
Twilight of the Gods follows Sigrid (Sylvia Hoeks), a giant-born warrior who’s set to wed a mortal Viking king Leif (Stuart Martin). When their wedding is unceremoniously crashed by Thor himself (Pilou Asbæk), Sigrid’s family is slaughtered. So she vows to do the impossible: slay the God of Thunder.
Sigrid’s quest takes her to Hel and back, and sees her journeying to fabled lands to recruit warriors with nothing to lose. On paper, it almost feels like Snyder’s new series took a page from quest games like Baldur’s Gate.
“I feel like the source material we were inspired by is probably a lot of the same source material that the makers of a lot of those quest games are inspired by,” he says.
In truth, though, quests have long been an object of fascination for the director. Whether it’s 300 or Sucker Punch, Watchmen or Rebel Moon, each Snyder joint follows the loose path of the hero’s journey — much to the chagrin of his wife.
“Zack and I always have this conversation,” Deborah Snyder says. “I’m like, ‘You always have them getting the group together. And it’s always this big story with this team.’ He’s like, ‘I know! I don’t even know if I like the team, but I always am drawn to it for some reason.’”
The rag-tag group of Twilight of the Gods are the latest in a long line of Snyder-backed ensembles.
There are a lot of things you can do with a rag-tag team of fighters, as Snyder’s best work demonstrates. That Twilight of the Gods takes a more classic approach to the concept, embracing the stories that have inspired the filmmaker for years, only makes the series stronger.
The concept of the quest is “all part and parcel to the Norse experience,” Snyder says. “They’re always looking for something. They’re always going somewhere. They’re always having to go through some forbidden realm, fight a dragon, whatever.”
There’s plenty of that mythmaking in Twilight of the Gods, as Sigrid needs every power at her disposal to defeat Thor. As she and her party take the winding road to Asgard, our unlikely heroes pick up legendary weapons, embrace magical buffs, and, yes, fight a dragon. But Snyder and his team also took pains to ground such a lofty adventure with, gritty — even messy — emotional stakes.
“At its core, it’s a love story [between] Sigrid and Leif,” says Snyder. While the couple begins this journey “crazy in love” with each other, Sigrid’s quest for revenge tests the limits of their devotion. Their plight is cleverly paralleled by the surprisingly human struggles of the gods, particularly Loki (Paterson Joseph), who becomes an unlikely ally in Sigrid’s crusade against Thor.
According to Coller, who co-founded Stone Quarry with the Snyders, Loki’s complex role only makes this lofty story more relatable.
“You could easily just put [Loki] in a villain column if you wanted to,” he says. “[But] if you step back and look what he’s fighting for, it’s not that detached from some of the human stories. I think by bringing some of these surreal characters closer to the human condition, it brings even these godlike characters closer to the audience.”
Zack Snyder’s new act
More seasons of Twilight of the Gods could be on their way: “[I’m] happy to do it again if there’s a want there.”
The Netflix series might be the most collaborative project for Snyder thus far, especially where that “Zack Snyder presents” is concerned. That said, this isn’t the beginning of a new, hands-off era for the director. We won’t be seeing a host of Snyder-produced projects with little more than his stamp of approval, nor is Stone Quarry looking to expand its production empire. “Zack Snyder presents” is less a promise for the future than it is of his commitment to one specific project. Snyder only directs two episodes of Twilight of the Gods, but his influence is all over the series, and that feels like the thesis for Stone Quarry’s entire MO.
“The truth of the matter is, we’re a small company,” says Deborah Snyder. “Really, it’s the three of us. Our focus is on the things that Zack’s directing, really being present for those things, and not spreading ourselves too thin.”
Exceptions may be made for established collaborators — like Damon Caro, who’s served as the Snyders’ stunt coordinator for years, and Matthias Schweighöfer, who directed Army of the Dead prequel Army of Thieves. Otherwise, the trio are hoping to keep their scope small, and their upcoming slate seems busy enough as is.
After Twilight of the Gods, Snyder is set to direct a new installment of the Army of the Dead franchise, Planet of the Dead. There are also tentative plans for more stories set in the Rebel Moon universe, and if Twilight of the Gods is well-received, Snyder wouldn’t say no to multiple seasons.
“This was an incredibly satisfying experience and fun to do,” Snyder says of his foray into animation. “Happy to do it again if there’s a want there.”
So long as he finds room in his schedule, the filmmaker could have a new Viking saga on his hands.
