HBO Max will release the Snyder Cut of ‘Justice League’ and DC fans are thrilled: ‘We’ve done the impossible!’
Look, up on your TV screen! Itâs Zack Snyderâs version of the 2017 superhero team-up Justice League coming to HBO Max in 2021. The soon-to-launch streaming service announced the debut of the near-mythical Snyder Cut, fulfilling the wishes of a long-running fan campaign. And Snyder made sure to give those fans a shoutout. âI want to thank HBO Max and Warner Brothers for this brave gesture of supporting artists and allowing their true visions to be realized,â the director remarked in a press release. âAlso a special thank you to all of those involved in the #SnyderCut movement for making this a reality.â
Jason Momoa, who Snyder handpicked to play Aquaman wasted little time declaring victory. âJustice is served,â he wrote on his Instagram account announcing the news.
Momoa â who reprised the role in a 2018 solo adventure â was even more effusive in a widely-circulated Twitter video. âItâs happening, finally,â the actor says. âGive it to me!â
The saga behind the #SnyderCut started almost immediately after the film premiered in theaters three years ago, to underwhelming reviews and box office numbers. But the version that most moviegoers saw wasnât Snyderâs original vision. After starting production on the film immediately after 2016âs divisive Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Snyder stepped aside in May 2017 in the wake of his daughterâs death. At that point, Joss Whedon â who previously directed The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultorn for DCâs distinguished competition at Marvel â took over and the film underwent numerous re-shoots and re-edits on its way into theaters.
As early as 2018, fans took to the internet to demand to see Snyderâs version of the story via online petitions and the viral #ReleseTheSynderCut hashtag. The director further fueled their enthusiasm by releasing images on the social media platform, Vero, that teased the bigger film he imagined. At the same time, many online noted that any âSnyder cutâ would be far from a polished production as many scenes from his version remained unshot and the special effects unfinished.
One of the reasons why you wonât see Snyderâs Justice League on HBO Max until 2021 is because WarnerMedia is giving the director and his wife and creative collaborator, Deborah Snyder, time to fill in some of those gaps with new F/X, new dialogue and a new score. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film may also be released in a different format, potentially as a four-hour movie or a six-chapter event series, and may cost an additional $20-30 million. “It will be an entirely new thing, and, especially talking to those who have seen the released movie, a new experience apart from that movie,â Snyder promised in that interview.
For the #SnyderCut faithful, May 20 now qualifies as a historic day.
But thereâs still plenty of skepticism about whether Snyderâs version of Justice League will be worth the wait, and, for that matter, what it means for the future relationship between fandom and studios.
The Snyder cut being released is a good thing for directorial freedom!
However itâs kind of a bad thing for internet culture. It tells the fringe groups of rabid fans that itâs okay and in fact necessary to behave like the Snyder cult did to achieve your goals. Which it isnât. pic.twitter.com/gb9ewCiE5o
â The (Swamp) Thing (@swamptalking) May 20, 2020
My opinions on this Justice League news are conflicted. On one hand I’m happy for the fans who want to see this cut. On the other, a few of those fans have been absolute monsters to people. What sort of precedent does this set?
And that’s my only tweet on this story. xo
â Scott Weinberg (@scottEweinberg) May 20, 2020
The worst thing the Snyder Cut can be at this point is âfine.â I hope itâs either genuinely awesome or a spectacular train wreck that out Catsâ Cats. It needs to be memorable after all of this!
â Eric Goldman (@TheEricGoldman) May 20, 2020
Zack Snyderâs Justice League will premiere on HBO Max in 2021.
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