It's been over a year since Justice League released, but people are still talking about what it could have been and not what it actually was. Some fans have been vocal about requests to see a Zack Snyder's director's cut of the movie, and they aren't the only ones. A few people who have worked on the film and saw what it was originally going to be have voiced how fans missed out, and photographer Clay Enos recently said that what happened to the movie was a "terrible wrong."
This is going to go down in film history as some sort of terrible wrong that can be righted, creatively. But what culture has to emerge for that to happen is something we need to work towards. We need to prioritize this sort of auteur filmmaker world and that hasn't been [happening] of late. So all of us need to support films that have the auteur's mark on them. Let's move gradually towards where the bottom line and the box office isn't the headline.
Due to a personal tragedy, Zack Snyder had to step away as the director of Justice League when the film was going into reshoots. These were reportedly extensive reshoots from the studio in order to course-correct the film based on the negative reaction to Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Ultimately, the changes didn't help the film, as it earned mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office. Since much of what Zack Snyder had originally planned was scrapped but mostly filmed, fans began asking for Warner Bros. to release the Snyder Cut. Due to several logistical reasons, that is unlikely to happen, but it hasn't stopped people who worked on Justice League from letting us know how much we are missing out.
Appearing on the The Farooqi Bros Podcast, still photographer Clay Enos talked about Justice League and how it was changed by the studio. Enos has collaborated with Snyder on several of his films, such as 300, Sucker Punch, Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, and Justice League. Enos didn't dish on how it was specifically different, but said that people need to support auteurs (directors with a distinct style and voice) so that studios are less likely to stamp out their vision.
While the studio system of making movies is not perfect, I don't think Warner Bros. not trusting Zack Snyder was the problem. They clearly did trust him in Man of Steel and BVS, two films that are very much Snyder films. It seems to me that the problem was that Warner had a panic attack and tried to redo Justice League too late in the game, potentially resulting a movie that was worse than it would have been.
While Zack Snyder's original vision for his Justice League movies sounded epic in scope, it never really does much good to wallow in what could have been. The DCEU has a bright future with lots of interesting projects in the works, and you can find what's coming down the pipeline here.
