Justice League's production has become one of the most bizarre blockbuster stories in recent memory. With Zack Snyder stepping back as the film's director following his daughter's recent suicide, Warner Bros has enlisted the help of The Avengers director Joss Whedon (who was already writing some additional scenes) to handle the task of helming the film's massive reshoots. Whedon's work on the project has been expected to be extensive, and it sounds like WB has supposedly even shelled out a nearly unprecedented $25 million to make it into a reality.
The fact that Justice League's reshoots have reportedly cost Warner Bros around $25 million is staggering. That's roughly two to three times the cost of traditional reshoots for a film like this, and the actual process of overhauling the final cut of the movie is expected to take roughly two full months, as opposed to the two-week window that most films shoot for. The reports indicate that the film's action sequences from the initial shooting schedule are still going to be used, and Whedon's role in the reshoots is to improve the film's dialogue and create a stronger narrative through line for the story as a whole.
Despite the amount of money and work going into the film, it still seems that Justice League will remain a Zack Snyder production for the foreseeable future. While Whedon may receive credit as a producer, or even a screenplay credit, Snyder will continue to take top billing as the film's director.
This Variety report about the reshoots provides intriguing insight into how Justice League has evolved over the last few months, but it seems that the film has also caused a headache for many people associated with the project. Specifically, Ezra Miller and Henry Cavill have been busy working on other films (Fantastic Beasts 2 and Mission: Impossible 6, respectively), and coordinating their new shooting schedules with those projects has created a fairly major conflict. For Cavill, those issues go even further because he grew a mustache for his role in Mission: Impossible 6, and part of Justice League's reshoot budget has gone towards digitally removing it in his few scenes on-screen. At least we now know Superman won't look like a 1970s porn star in the upcoming DC film.
Before we get too concerned about the future of this DCEU project, it's worth remembering that reshoots don't necessarily determine whether or not a film will succeed. Films like World War Z and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story similarly went through extensive reshoots, and the results resonated with audiences. There's no question that DC fans are anxious to see how the first live action Justice League movie will pan out, but these reshoots aren't anything worth getting too worried about yet. Think about it: a film with Zack Snyder's action and Joss Whedon's dialogue has the potential to blow our minds. We just have to wait and see.
We'll find out what the final version of DC's Justice League will look like when Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon's superhero epic premieres in theaters on November 17.
