The dust hasn’t even settled on the four-hour Snyder Cut of Justice League over on HBO Max and Zack Snyder already has begun ramping up promotion on his next movie, this time for Netflix. It’s an embarrassment of riches for Snyder and his fans, as he’s able to deliver the complete visions of two drastically different stories -- one involving superheroes, one involving zombies -- and Snyder is making it clear that the filmmaking processes on both Justice League and the upcoming Army of the Dead couldn’t have been more different, as well.
The battle that Zack Snyder had to wage on behalf of his cut of Justice League has captivated millions. Selfishly, I even wrote a book that details the Release the Snyder Cut movement, that you can order now. And Snyder seems to be referencing the fight he had to wage with Warner Bros. on a seemingly daily basis when making that DC Comics sequel, as he told CinemaBlend during a press conference while promoting Army of the Dead:
My experience working with Netflix has been amazing. My team there has been nothing but supportive and incredibly collaborative. This was probably one of my, if not my, most sort of satisfying experiences I've had making a movie, and just really everything about it was fun. And from the cast and the crew and Netflix themselves, everyone's been incredibly supportive and just joy to work with. And so, yeah, this is the movie. There's no other cut of the movie. I didn't have to fight them. It was incredibly… it was the opposite. This is the director's cut, if you will. You don't have to see a bastardized version. You get to just see the awesome version.
Like it or not, Zack Snyder’s name is going to be linked to “alternate cuts” of movies for the rest of his career. And he has earned some of that discussion. Snyder often has longer cuts of his movies, from Watchmen to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. There’s even a rumored longer cut of the director’s Sucker Punch that he hopes to release one day. But that won’t be the case with Army of the Dead, for Snyder is making it very clear (for now) that the version that is coming to select theaters on May 14 and then Netflix on May 21 is his definitive version, and not a “bastardized” version that has suffered from studio interference.
Is Zack Snyder throwing shade at his former employers? That’s how I read it. He talks about not having to fight Netflix (the way that we know he fought with WB brass, even on decisions for his Snyder Cut). He talks about Army of the Dead being his definitive version. And I hope that this is the beginning of a new arc of Snyder’s career, where he’s able to find creative outlets that support his vision fully. Because we know that he lived under the blanket of WB’s DC vision, and only now is he completely free… unless the fans manage to Restore the SnyderVerse. Which is a different story for a different day.
