Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut. Those five words are enough to fill fans’ hearts with hope and optimism and/or start heated debates online. Even if you were pleased with what Joss Whedon ultimately did with the film, it’s hard to deny that a lot of what was cut sounds like it could have made the finished product a whole lot better and as such, a petition asking Warner Bros. to release the alternate version has now reached over 100k signatures. But will it end up swaying the studio?
Unfortunately, the answer to that is probably not. And it’s not because they don’t want to give us Zack’s cut of the pic, but rather because such a thing doesn’t even exist. Or at least, that’s according to a VFX artist who worked on Justice League. Hosting a Reddit AMA earlier this week, the crew member revealed that there’s no Director’s Cut of the blockbuster hidden away somewhere and everything we’ve heard that says otherwise is simply a rumor.
“The film is found in the edit process, rarely does a director start shooting with the entire film plotted out. Some things work, some things don’t. There is no Snyder cut – obviously he had a rough edit in process when he left in February, but the reshoots were done 6 months after that, and he had no final version of the film.
Sure, Zack would’ve probably done things differently to how the movie turned out, but that’s it. There isn’t a secret Zack version hidden somewhere. It just doesn’t exist. There is no cut. People who spread the rumor are the worst, perpetuating rumors of processes they don’t understand.”
Though Reddit moderators have confirmed the VFX artist’s legitimacy, and what he’s saying makes sense, we’d still suggest taking this with a grain of salt. True, a Zack Snyder version probably doesn’t exist. At least, not in a finished, completed form like some have suggested. If anything, there may be an assembly cut somewhere that lacks complete CGI and VFX, and it’d be a stretch to imagine Warner Bros. would pay to have that polished up to the point where it’s ready to put on a Blu-ray.
Then again, who knows? The demand for a Director’s Cut of some kind is intense, with that aforementioned petition quickly gaining traction. Besides, much like the Ultimate Edition of Batman V Superman before it, it’ll open up another stream of revenue for WB. And lord knows the studio needs it now, considering Justice League may wind up losing $100 million when all is said and done.