It’s official. HBO Max announced Wednesday that Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of Justice League will debut on the platform in 2021.
“I want to thank HBO Max and Warner Brothers for this brave gesture of supporting artists and allowing their true visions to be realized. Also a special thank you to all of those involved in the SnyderCut movement for making this a reality,” Snyder said in a statement.
The cries of #releasethesnydercut may have finally been answered.
On Wednesday, director Zack Snyder will host a watch party for his film Man of Steel—and if online buzz and speculation prove to be accurate, he may also use that opportunity to announce release plans for his fabled director’s cut of Justice League.
“It’s happening,” Peter Sciretta, the founder of fansite Slashfilm, wrote Monday on Twitter. Sciretta was one of a number of bloggers to make allusions to the forthcoming news.
“I’d watch this on Wednesday morning if I was y’all…just sayin’,” TheWrap film reporter Umberto Gonzalez added about the Snyder-hosted event.
A much-maligned box office disappointment, Justice League was supposed to ignite Warner Bros.’s interconnected universe of DC Comics heroes. But despite the presence of Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Superman (Henry Cavill), The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), the project was undone by production troubles and, for Snyder, personal tragedy. The version that arrived in theaters was a Frankenstein’s monster of Snyder’s vision and reshoots directed by Joss Whedon. In the aftermath of its calamitous release, Snyder devotees hit social media with a rallying cry: #releasethesnydercut.
“We the undersigned, call on Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. to distribute a director’s cut of the recent DC Films production Justice League,” wrote a group of fans on one high profile Change.org petition that had over 175,000 signatures before being closed. “We ask this with the utmost respect, and in no way seek to harm the profitability of the Justice League, or the reputations of those who worked hard to provide DC fans with a movie that many have been waiting decades for. Please don’t see this as a type of film review, we are not film critics nor have any interest in influencing creative direction, we are DC Films fans and look forward to and appreciate all films from the DC universe. It was simply to our dismay, not the film we were expecting.” So, what were they expecting?
What Is The Snyder Cut?
When Justice League was released on November 17, 2017, Snyder was the film’s sole credited director—but in name only. Six months earlier, Snyder had stepped away from the DC Comics film following the death of his daughter, Autumn. In his place, Whedon, director of the Marvel Studios blockbusters The Avengers and its sequel, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, was tapped to finish the film in post-production and guide any reshoots. “I want the movie to be amazing, and I’m a fan, but that all pales pretty quickly in comparison,” Snyder said at the time about his decision to leave the film in order to be with his family. “I know the fans are going to be worried about the movie, but there are seven other kids that need me. In the end, it’s just a movie. It’s a great movie. But it’s just a movie.”
Despite his confidence, the version of Justice League that arrived in theaters appeared to be at war with itself. Whedon, who may have reshot about 20% of the film, is known for his humorous wordplay and light touch; Snyder’s hallmark is the ultra-serious, often dour spin he puts on traditional blockbuster material. The aesthetics didn’t match, as evidenced from a rooftop chase scene between Batman and a low-level criminal played by Holt McCallany at the start of the film. “My scene with Batman was originally conceived as a comedic scene. That’s how Joss wrote it, and that’s how we shot it,” McCallany told Men’s Journal in 2017. “I thought it came out great, but the studio felt it would be a mistake to open the film with a completely comedic scene, so it was re-edited a little bit.”
Post-production troubles weren’t just limited to tone, either. After finishing Justice League, Cavill grew a mustache for his part in the Paramount sequel Mission: Impossible—Fallout. When Justice League reshoots were needed, Paramount refused to give its star the all-clear to shave. So rather than allow for a mustachioed Superman to appear onscreen, Warner Bros. edited out the mustache with some unfortunately obvious digital effects—including the very first scene of the film, in which Cavill-as-Superman directly addresses the camera. “I’m not sure which other studio did that opening shot on the cell phone but it’s dreadful,” an unnamed visual effects artist who claimed to work on DC Films said on Reddit in 2017. “It shouldn’t have been approved internally let alone gone all the way to make it into the film. That shocked me a bit. We were all looking at each other when the film started like ‘wtf is this?!’”
Unfortunately, even a clean-shaven Cavill probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Justice League was savaged by critics upon its release, and audiences mostly agreed with their assessment. The film grossed just $657 million worldwide on a reported but unconfirmed budget of $300 million, making it one of the most costly misfires ever released.
Does the Snyder Cut Exist?
Even before this week, DC Comics fans and even some of the director’s colleagues and coworkers remained adamant that a version of the film closer to Snyder’s original vision existed somewhere. “I’m not saying I’ve seen it, but if I HAD, I would unequivocally support the powers that be to #releasethesnydercut,” Watchmen showrunner Damon Lindelof wrote on Instagram in 2019. That post came amid a wave of support for the #snydercut from the Justice League cast, including Affleck and Gadot, who shared social media posts with the hashtag #releasethesyndercut, the rallying cry hardcore fans had long since adopted.
But even as a drumbeat of support from legitimate players continued, many observers felt the #syndercut might be more of a superhero Brigadoon. “It’s sad, because there’s zero chance that Warner will ever—there’s zero chance this will ever happen, and part of the reason involves money, and part of the reason involves ego,” New York Times reporter Brooks Barnes told The Ringer in June of last year in a piece on the cult of Snyder. “It’s a very well-meaning effort that, sadly, I hope people haven’t contributed a whole lot of their rent money to.”
In November, those comments were echoed by an anonymous source to Variety: “That’s a pipe dream,” said the source, whom Variety called a “knowledgeable insider.” “There’s no way it’s ever happening.”
As noted by the New York Times last year, completing Snyder’s version of Justice League likely required a large financial investment to finish the extensive special effects work.
Snyder, for his part, did little to disabuse the notion that his cut of Justice League was real. In December of last year, shortly after the coordinated push from the Justice League cast, Snyder posted a photo on Vero, his social media platform of choice: It was a picture of film cans labeled Justice League Director’s Cut.
“Is it real? Does it exist?” he wrote over the image. “Of course it does.” If rumor becomes reality, HBO Max subscribers will soon get to see if #releasethesnydercut was worth the wait.
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