Justice League deserved its critical beating. What slithered into cinemas back in 2017 was a Frankenstein’s monster of a movie: nonsensically plotted, full of terrible quips, just plain ugly and with some truly awful CGI. It turned out that what went on behind the scenes was far more compelling drama than what we saw on the big screen though, with Snyder being booted off the project after the studio got cold feet about his approach. Their solution was to bring Joss Whedon in to give a little bit of that Avengers razzle-dazzle to the DCEU, and we all know how that worked out.
Ever since, fans have launched a long and sustained campaign to get the fabled Snyder cut released. Over the years, we’ve heard various stories about how complete his cut of the film was. We also know that it was screened to Warner Bros. executives and have seen clips from scenes that didn’t make it into the final product. Furthermore, it’s been said that it contains unfinished VFX and score and that to get it completed would take a lot of time and money. With all this in mind, you can at least forgive Warner Bros. for not wanting to throw yet more resources at Justice League.
But now we’re hearing that a release may actually happen. Sources close to WGTC – the same ones who told us Jonah Hill was joining The Batman, Robert Pattinson was locked in as the new Dark Knight and that Black Adam will be in Shazam! 3 – say that Zack Snyder has assembled a fresh cut of the movie, which he’s re-edited, touched up and is now trying to get into a releasable state. Word is that that it’s been shown to Warner Bros. executives, too, so we may be waiting on their decision.
And while this remains to be confirmed by the studio, it does broadly fit with their loosened grip on their DC properties. Post-Justice League we’ve seen a willingness to allow directors to play with the properties without directly tying them into the DCEU. The most obvious example is Joker, which is currently considered a standalone movie. It’d also win them a lot of goodwill from fans who’ve kept the Snyder cut flame burning. As such, let’s hope this pans out, as I’d love to see Zack’s original vision for Justice League.