Back on that fateful day in October 2014 when Warner Bros. and DC Films announced ten new movies to carry the nascent DCEU into the future, even the most pessimistic of fans couldn’t have imagined how things would have turned out. Cyborg and Green Lantern Corps were dropped entirely, The Flash still hasn’t started shooting yet, and Justice League went on to become one of the most infamous productions in recent history.
Originally announced as the first installment in a two-part epic, both halves of Zack Snyder’s team-up were scheduled to be released on either side of Ben Affleck’s The Batman, but here we are almost six and a half years later and the wait to see the filmmaker’s original vision for Justice League still isn’t over, although the clock is ticking down fast.
Of course, there’ve been plenty of rumors and speculation making the rounds that a canonical sequel might end up getting the green light depending on how well the Snyder Cut fares on HBO Max. And while everyone knows it’s going to draw in a huge number of viewers, the real question is how much the four-hour behemoth will appeal to those that haven’t been closely following the project since November 2017.
That remains to be seen, but in a new interview, Snyder admitted that the studio has no interest in a direct Justice League follow-up, though he did tease that some of the plot and story threads could be picked up in the future by other movies.
“The reality is, as far as I know, there’s no interest and/or appetite to do more of these movies from Warner Bros. With me, anyway. But I didn’t think making this, finishing this film correctly would ever happen. But I did do my best to, as far as the creation of the Justice League, those different personalities being brought together, that idea, that’s what this movie is about. There is a suggestion of course in the film, as there would be within any of these movies, of a larger universe that’s still out there.”
You can completely understand Warner Bros.’ position when they’ve already funnelled at least another $70 million into Zack Snyder’s Justice League. In fact, if you factor in the original budget, the cost of Joss Whedon’s reshoots and the marketing blitz for both cuts, then almost half a billion dollars has been pumped into the film without generating a single penny of profit as of yet.