The tales of woe surrounding Justice League have long since become the stuff of legend, and the issues began long before Zack Snyder departed the project to be replaced by Joss Whedon, who then ran the DCU crossover straight into the ground.
The blockbuster’s original director had his issues with Warner Bros. in the past – most notably when it came to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – but the fact his four-hour cut of the exact same movie runs more than twice as long as the theatrical edition underlines that the studio’s desire to keep Justice League under two hours was never going to work with Snyder at the helm.
There must have been a real danger of some flashbacks, then, after Netflix content chief Scott Stuber revealed that his insistence for the company’s exclusive features to run for less than 120 minutes was put directly to Snyder and his wife/producing partner Deborah during the development of Rebel Moon. Speaking to Vanity Fair, though, the latter revealed that the simple workaround was for her husband to simply deliver two full-length sci-fi epics instead.
“Stuber was like, ‘On the service, under-two-hour movies really do better for some reason,’ even though you’ll binge-watch a series of eight episodes. Zack said, ‘If you ask me to make this less than two hours, I’m going to lose all the character. You won’t care about these people. It’s a character story about how people can change, and redemption, and what are you willing to fight for…’ So he said, ‘What if I give you two movies?’”
Just like that, the Justice League problem was solved, and now Netflix subscribers have roughly four hours of Rebel Moon to enjoy as a result, which just goes to show that maybe Snyder is in the perfect place after all.