UPDATE 9/1: Snyder is now on record — he “can’t really talk about it, but it is awesome” — and he’s teasing “the Game of Thrones-ian version of 300”.
UPDATE: As the prequel talks continue, Snyder has recounted how the original 300 got made, crediting a copy of the comic on producer Gianni Nunnari’s desk and pitching it as “that, but a movie.”
Zack Snyder’s 300 prequel series is alive, and it just got a lot more interesting.
Monday night, The Hot Mic co-host John Rocha reported that, per his sources, Netflix and Warner Bros. are working on a 300 prequel series with Snyder onboard to direct the pilot.
It’s claimed it has not been ordered to series yet, but a writers room has been assembled.
Some of that was already out there. Some of it is new. And per our insiders, Netflix isn’t the only streamer at the table.
What Was Already Known
The series itself isn’t new.
Variety first reported in May 2024 that a 300 prequel was in early development at Warner Bros. Television, with Snyder in talks to direct and executive produce alongside Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller of Stone Quarry, and original 300 producers Gianni Nunnari, Mark Canton, and Bernie Goldmann in talks to return.
Snyder confirmed it himself that September, telling ComicBook.com they were “just getting ready to dive in and get to work on it,” after describing it earlier that summer as “a fun streaming concept that I think everybody is into.”
When we covered the Variety report, we wondered whether the show would end up on Netflix instead of Max, given Snyder’s Army of the Dead and Rebel Moon deals there. Two years later, that’s exactly where Rocha’s sources put it.
So the new pieces from Rocha are Netflix, Snyder on the pilot specifically, and a writers room, which is a real step up from “preliminary meetings.”
However, recall our report: DC fans do not want a SnyderVerse return on Netflix, which may explain why Paramount+ is in the mix. Unfortunately, I can’t get into specifics.
Our Insiders: Netflix Came Back After The Odyssey, And Paramount+ Is In Talks Too
Here’s what I’m told.
Zack has been developing the series for a while. It never went away.
The Netflix part is the interesting one. Per our insiders, Netflix only got interested again after the massive success of Christopher Nolan’sThe Odyssey.
Line that up.
Christopher Nolan’s Greek epic is the biggest movie of his career at more than $1.1 billion worldwide, past $500 million domestic, and still holding IMAX screens in its fifth weekend.
A Greek epic from the director of 300, which did more than $450 million worldwide on a $65 million budget (over $755M in today’s dollars), suddenly looks like exactly what a streamer wants in the pipeline.
It’s the same thing our insiders told us last week about a different Snyder project: “there’s a hunger for epic, mythological events.” That was about The Dark Knight Returns. It applies to Sparta too.
And Netflix isn’t alone. I’m told Paramount’s streaming side is also in talks for the series.
That tracks when you remember who is set to own Warner Bros. Television.
Paramount is the incoming owner, with the deal frozen until a trial verdict as late as June 2027 unless a settlement lands before Ellison’s October 1 deadline.
Until then, Warner Bros. TV can shop the show, Netflix is the outside buyer with the checkbook, and Paramount+ is the buyer with every reason to want a Warner Bros. property kept in the family it’s about to own.
Which is why both are in talks.
There may be another twist. Recall that under the current Paramount-WBD contract, David Ellison and Paramount have say over any deals that stretch past 2 years. So if the rights to 300 are fully under WBD and the series signs longer-term contracts, Paramount would have to sign off. Of course, they might just sign a pilot deal, then a one-season pickup, which would avoid any current Paramount constraints, as we understand it
Snyder Has Been Posting 300, Just Like The DCEU Images
If you follow Snyder’s Instagram, you’ve seen this coming.
The same way he seeds Batman and Superman images, most recently the Affleck BvS photo scored to “We Do This Together” hours after our Batman report, Snyder has been posting 300 here and there.
In March, he ran a string of posts around the movie’s 19th anniversary, telling fans to grab the Blu-ray or find it on streaming and make it “movie night,” and quoting Dilios’ “a new age has begun” speech. Larry Fong, his 300 and Watchmen cinematographer, joined in.
As with the DCEU posts, none of it is random. Zack posts what he’s thinking about, and he’s been thinking about Sparta.
A Big Week For Snyder, With The Dark Knight Returns Still Waiting At Paramount
Rocha’s report landed the same day Snyder dropped the first teaser for The Last Photograph, with a full trailer coming soon.
It also landed a day after we laid out why Paramount wants The Dark Knight Returns: the movie is fully storyboarded by Jay Oliva and Snyder, “ready to go” and built for IMAX, with Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill as Snyder’s picks, per our insiders.
Put it together and it’s the picture our insiders have been describing all summer.
Zack Snyder is coming back to Warner Bros. properties: a 300 series that Warner Bros. TV controls, and a Dark Knight Returns movie waiting on the owner who can say yes. Both run through Paramount. One of them, per Rocha’s sources, may run through Netflix first.
Remember, Snyder made sure everyone saw him “poking around” the Paramount lot earlier this year, and he was also just at WBD, where he got a hero’s welcome.
About 300
300, based on the Frank Miller and Lynn Varley graphic novel, opened March 9, 2007, and grossed more than $450 million worldwide on a $65 million budget. (Miller is also the writer on The Dark Knight Returns, where Snyder hosted the event we were at in LA)
Gerard Butler starred as Leonidas alongside Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West, Vincent Regan, Michael Fassbender, and Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes.
Noam Murro’s 300: Rise of an Empire, co-written by Snyder, followed in 2014 and grossed $337 million worldwide.
The prequel has no title and no series order yet, and nothing is official. Per Rocha’s sources, it has Netflix, a writers room, and Snyder on the pilot.
Per ours, it also has Paramount+ at the table, and Netflix wouldn’t be there without The Odyssey.
