It’s official – the long-rumoured Justice League cut is real, and coming to HBO Max.
Justice League fans will finally get to see the ‘Snyder Cut’ in all its potential glory as the elusive ‘Snyder Cut’ is officially announced.
“I want to thank HBO Max and Warner Brothers for this brave gesture of supporting artists and allowing their true visions to be realized,” said Justice League director Zack Snyder in an official statement. “Also a special thank you to all of those involved in the #SnyderCut movement for making this a reality.”
The ‘Snyder Cut’ has been a point of contention amongst Justice League fans ever since the original film’s theatrical release. After director Zack Snyder was forced to exit the troubled Warner Bros. picture deep into production, fellow filmmaker Joss Whedon was brought on board to finish the movie.
According to Justice League optimists, this is where the production ran into trouble, resulting in the muddled and tonally-barren movie we ended up with. But there was apparently a ray of hope in the ‘Snyder Cut’ – an extended cut of Zack Snyder’s original vision which remained unfinished and unpublished. That is, until now.
At the moment it’s not clear what form this new Justice League cut will take. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there are two possibilities. The first, is as an extended movie – clocking in with a staggering run-time of almost four hours. But it could also take the form of a six-episode mini-series.
Director Zack Snyder and long-time collaborator (and wife) Deborah Snyder are reportedly working out the details as we speak.
It looks as though there’s a lot to work out, too. THR reveals that HBO Max is putting forward a whopping $20 – $30 million budget for this new cut. This likely means a lot of new visual effects work to complete previously unfinished scenes and could even extend to necessary reshoots and additional scenes.
But will the ‘Snyder Cut’ turn Justice League into the film we all wanted to see?
Zack Snyder’s original concept for the Justice League movie involved splitting the film into two parts – much the same way that Avengers: Infinity War was originally devised as a two-part film. But after Snyder left the production, it was rumoured that Warner Bros. wanted to push out the finished product as soon as possible, with Joss Whedon performing a heavy edit and reducing the planned story to a single movie.
This mean the omission of a number of key plot points, not to mention entire villains disappearing from the story.
Now, the long-awaited ‘Snyder Cut’ has the opportunity to showcase Zack Snyder’s original vision as he planned it. Whether or not this will elevate the movie to new heights remains to be seen.
But at least we’ll finally get to see what the original director intended.
Justice League: The Snyder Cut comes to HBO Max in 2021.
