Zack Snyder’s latest movie Army of the Dead may be doing gangbusters on Netflix by topping the most-watched chart in virtually every country around the world where the streaming service is available, but the fallout from Justice League is still far from over.
There’s clearly no love lost between the filmmaker and his former employers, and since the four-hour version of the DCEU epic premiered on HBO Max, it’s as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulders. Snyder has been more open than ever before about his differences of opinion with the studio and how they treated him personally, calling them “aggressively anti-Snyder” and revealing that his experience in post-production on Justice League was tantamount to torture.
He may have brought them billions of box office dollars during their fifteen-year partnership that began with 300 and lasted through Watchmen, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Sucker Punch, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and two iterations of Justice League, but in a new interview, he addressed his feelings on Joss Whedon stepping in to deliver a virtually unrecognizable version of the superhero team-up, and he didn’t hold back.
“It takes a lot out of you when you work for three years on a thing and then see it destroyed. That’s big, and that’s hard for anybody, as you can imagine.”
Writer Chris Terrio previously referred to the theatrical edition of Justice League as an act of vandalism, and the movie’s critical and commercial failure led to a course correction of sorts for the entire DCEU, although WB still haven’t exactly figured out where the blockbuster series is heading.
Fans may be calling for the restoration of the SnyderVerse, and while it looks more unlikely than ever, at least Netflix’s Army of the Dead is poised to give them a shared universe representative of its creator’s unfiltered vision.