It has been three years to the day since acclaimed director Zack Snyder was able to unveil his four-hour Snyder Cut of the controversial Justice League to fans, courtesy of a streaming debut on the HBO Max platform. For those unaware, Snyder left Justice League following a death in his family, and the studio used the opportunity to recut his movie, adding more levity and completely changing the director’s ultimate vision. (I wrote about the complete debacle in my nonfiction book Release the Snyder Cut, if you’d like to brush up on the historic events.) After fans lobbied – some might say “assaulted” – the studio for three years to get the Snyder Cut of Justice League released, Warner Bros. finally relented. But if the studio didn’t cave, Snyder always joked about an alternate distribution model… which he brought up again today.
Zack Snyder didn’t have to resort to this last-ditch effort, but while doing press for the Snyder Cut of Justice League, he always joked about how – in desperate times – he thought about leaving a hard drive with the finished film on the sink of a bathroom somewhere, hoping some fan would find it, and upload it to the grid so that the world could watch it. And Snyder referenced that joke on his Vero platform today as he wished Zack Snyder’s Justice League a happy three-year anniversary.
Zack Snyder ended up making lemonade from the lemons that were handed to him from the Justice League situation. Not only did he get the opportunity to release his four-hour cut of the movie, with multiple characters added back into the mix, Snyder also produced a black-and-white cut of the movie called “Justice is Grey” and got the chance to screen the movie for fans in IMAX. That was part of a charity event called Full Circle, during which Snyder screened all three of his DC movies with full Q-and-A panels for fans.
Snyder fans will tell you that they wish he got to keep going. The director had plans for Justice League sequels, though they have been scrapped alongside the rest of the DCEU in favor of a rebooted DC Universe continuity that’s being shaped by James Gunn and Peter Safran. That world will launch later this year with the animated TV series Creature Commandos, before expanding to include several upcoming DC movies such as Superman, The Authority, and a different take on Batman called The Brave and the Bold.
Perhaps one day, Snyder’s full vision for his Justice League series will see the light of day, in an animated movie or a graphic novel. Or he’ll leave it on a sink in a filthy bathroom, creating the most valuable treasure hunt in his fandom’s history.
