Yesterday, some tragic news struck the film community. Director and storyteller Zack Snyder revealed that he had lost his daughter to suicide. Snyder is famous for his film 300: Rise of an Empire. And recently, he has been building a DC film franchise. He directed Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. He helped with the creation of Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman. And most recently, he has been working on the highly anticipated film Justice League, set to be released November 17th of this year.

    Yesterday, the director revealed to the public that his daughter, Autumn Snyder, had killed herself at the age of 20 back in March. Snyder said that he attempted to continue directing Justice League, but the constant pressure and demands of the job prohibited him from being with his family. He has now stepped back from the project, and passed the baton to director Joss Whedon who plans to finish the final sequences of the film while respecting Zack’s visions and wishes for the tone of the movie.

    DC fans and movie fans have a newfound respect for Zack. Despite the loss of his daughter, he continued working on Justice League for three months because of his dedication to the DC Universe and his dedication to fans. He was supposedly offered the chance to delay the release of the film, but he chose to have Joss Whedon finish it because he would not allow his fans to be let down. Now, Zack Snyder joins his wife and other children at home, in hopes of spending as much time with them as he can in this time of mourning.

    Zack Snyder’s DC movies have been controversial; so far none of them have had high critic scores, and many people hate on his work. But there is also a huge base of DC fans who respect his work and love his films, including myself. Zack left this fanbase with the message “Just fight the good fight against the hate and I will be back with JL- thank you for your support”. Zack Snyder is stating that he will return for Justice League 2, and until then he wants the fans to keep defending the DC Universe against hecklers and critics.

    Fans on social media have been showing a tremendous amount of support for Snyder by using the hashtag #WeAreWithYouZackSnyder. Some are making video tributes and artwork dedicated to him and/or his daughter.

    Autumn Snyder may have passed, but Zack believes she can live on through a science fiction novel she wrote. The premise of the novel involved feeling like an outsider, perhaps hinting at the reason for her suicide. Zack wants to publish this novel and share it with the world.

    Autumn Snyder will be dearly missed, and the DC and film communities stand by Zack Snyder.