Zack Snyder’s Justice League: All About The Snyder Cut

Zack Snyder's Justice League will debut on the HBO Max streaming platform.

By Rick Gonzales

This article is more than 2 years old

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Zack Snyder is finally going to have his day in court and fans couldn’t be happier for the court of public opinion is what matters. Yes, it is going to happen. The “Snyder Cut” of 2017s disappointing movie Justice League is going to be released in 2021. Zack Snyder’s Justice League will debut on the HBO Max streaming platform.

ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE PROMOTION

The first full trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League is here. Watch…

And here’s the second trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League

During Comic Con @ Home Zack Snyder delivered a clip which contained our first ever look at Superman in his iconic black suit. Here it is…

The first teaser trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League has been unveiled, thanks to Jason Momoa. Here it is…

Jason Momoa was one of the first Justice League cast members to jump on the #releasethesnydercut movement, so it’s appropriate that he’s the first to debut footage from the movie.

The above clip is all about teasing the introduction of Darkseid, an iconic DC Comics villain who wasn’t actually in Justice League but will will be in the new Snyder Cut of the movie.

RYAN REYNOLDS TO APPEAR

Reynolds JLA

Ryan Reynolds has done a good job of distancing himself from his stint as Hal Jordan in the box office flop Green Lantern. He’s since become more identified with being Deadpool. But now word is that he’s ready to return to playing the character.

WGTC claims Reynolds has agreed to appear as Green Lantern in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The rumor is that his appearance will be really brief, but that Green Lantern is going to play a pivotal role in the new version of Justice League.

THE TROUBLE WITH JOSS WHEDON’S VERSION

Joss Whedon is the director who finished Justice League after Zack Snyder had to unexpectedly leave the project. Whedon is now being accused of engaging in “gross” and “abusive” behavior on the Justice League set. Get the full story of what we know about what happened here.

Bringing Back Amy Adams

Word is that Zack Snyder is bringing back Amy Adams for reshoots on Zack Snyder’s Justice League. But his reasons for bringing her back are pretty macabre. He wants her dead.

This source claims Snyder is bringing Amy Adams back to play Lois Lane so he can have the villain Darkseid kill her. Darkseid is, of course, the new villain being added in to the Snyder Cut, and he was not seen in the original Justice League.

It would actually explain why Lois Lane was in the original Justice League at all. She had very little to do. If the original intention was there to set up her death at the hands of DC Comics most powerful villain, then it makes more sense.

First Look At Darkseid

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is so different from the Justice League movie you saw, it’ll even have a different villain. Snyder’s cut will use the infamous DC Comics villain Darkseid, a guy who is basically the DC answer to Thanos. And here’s your first look at how Darkseid will appear in the movie…

ANNOUNCING THE RELEASE OF THE SNYDER CUT

The big announcement came when Zack Snyder hosted a Man of Steel watch party and brought along Superman himself Henry Cavill. Of course, one fan had to ask. Here is how it all went down.

To go with the announcement Warner Bros. released posters announcing the arrival of Zack Snyder’s Justice League

And here’s how the stars of Justice League reacted to the announcement that the new version of the movie is really happening…

ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE

Zack Snyder's Justice League

The official title of the new version of the movie is Zack Snyder’s Justice League. What we don’t know about the Justice League Snyder Cut is what form we will see it in. There is talk about one big four-hour movie and there is also talk about HBO Max presenting it as six episodes.

What we do know is that it is going to cost $20-30 million to complete and Warner is ready and willing to pony up the cash to bring back whatever actors Snyder will need to finish the cut as well as complete the effects necessary.

HOW DIFFERENT WILL THE SNYDER CUT OF JUSTICE LEAGUE BE?

Zack Snyder's Justice League

“It will be an entirely new thing, and, especially talking to those who have seen the released movie, a new experience apart from that movie,” Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter. He also added that he never, ever thought his movie would see the light of day. “I always thought it was a thing that in 20 years, maybe somebody would do a documentary and I could lend them the footage, little snippets of a cut no one has ever seen.”

But expect Snyder’s version to be vastly different from what fans saw in 2017. Cyborg, portrayed by Ray Fisher, played a much bigger role in Snyder’s version. Chances are his character will see more screen time. The longer running time will also give Snyder an opportunity to further develop his heroes. There is also a suggestion that this version of Justice League will include the Knightmare storyline from the comics where Batman battles Parademons and an evil Superman.

Another big addition will be the villain Darkseid. He was briefly mentioned in Batman v Superman and Snyder brought in actor Ray Porter to portray the big bad in Justice League, but he eventually was left on the cutting room floor for Steppenwolf.

Others that were shot but cut out of the 2017 movie were Joe Morton as Silas Stone and Ryan Zheng as Ryan Choi, who eventually became Atom. Karen Bryson was on board to play Elinore Stone, Willem Dafoe had his Nudis Vulko character sidelined and Kiersey Clemons was supposed to be Flash’s love interest, Iris West. There was also talk of a Green Lantern sighting and some versions of the Lanterns may be a part of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

It will be interesting to see what direction HBO Max and Co. go when premiering the Snyder Cut and what form the final product will look like. If any of the rumors are true, it is sure to be a better version of what we saw from the 2017 film. At least we can hope. For now though, the excitement is real, just as real as the long-rumored Snyder Cut.

Adding Supergirl To The Snyder Cut

Supergirl

Zack Snyder has $20 million to shoot new scenes for Zack Snyder’s Justice League and he’s not just reshooting things he already did, he’s shooting new material and even adding new characters. One of the characters he’s rumored to be adding is Supergirl.

Elle Fanning for Snyder Cut
Elle Fanning

This source claims that not only is Snyder planning to add Supergirl to the movie, he’s also eyeing Elle Fanning to play her. What they don’t say, and at this stage nobody really knows, is how big of a role she’ll actually have. If I had to guess I’d say this is just a cameo to set up another project he wants to include Supergirl in down the road. But it’s possible she could play a larger role in the final cut of the film than we suspect.

WHY RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT?

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Director Zack Snyder had plans. His Justice League was going to be a two-parter with Justice League Part One being released in 2017 and Justice League Part Two following in 2019. Obviously, that plan never happened. What did happen was Snyder’s version (now one movie) being mostly completed in 2017 before he, unfortunately, had to step away and hand the reins over to Joss Whedon.

Early reports from Hollywood were that Warner Brothers was unhappy with Snyder and his three and a half hours cut, so he was cut loose. The reality was much more brutal. Snyder’s daughter Autumn took her own life and the director stepped away from the movie to concentrate on his family.

Snyder’s wife Deborah told The Hollywood Reporter of the time, “The first year was about the milestones and the holidays,” recalls Deborah. “Now, it’s not those but other moments, like songs that trigger memories, that hit me unexpectedly.” Snyder himself also reflected on that time since his daughter’s suicide. “As a family, as a couple, I think we have grown in a way that has made us stronger. We’re doing our best. You really can’t hope for more.”

AN AVENGER TO THE RESCUE

Zack Snyder's Justice League

So, Warner Brothers handed Snyder’s vision for Justice League over to Joss Whedon, who many of you know wrote and directed 2012s Marvel’s The Avengers and its sequel, the 2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron. With most of the filming complete on Justice League, it seemed like it would be a slam dunk for Whedon to get the movie to the November 2017 finish line.

The movie did make its release date, but the version fans saw in the movie theater was nothing like what Snyder filmed nor planned. Snyder’s close to four-hour epic was cut to two hours even though Whedon added an additional 80 pages of script to the movie. He also made some big changes to the ending .

The resulting Justice League movie is a hodge-podge mess that simply did not resonate with critics or fans. It was a disappointing superhero movie to say the least. In fact Snyder himself, though he has yet to see the Whedon version of his film, noted that fans “probably saw one-fourth of what I did.”

THE RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT MOVEMENT

It was quickly apparent at the release of Justice League that fans were not pleased. It also didn’t take long for a movement to start to get WB to release Snyder’s cut of JL. The movement, #ReleasetheSnyderCut, started quietly but grew to epic proportions.

The calls to Release The Snyder Cut became so loud that even the stars of Justice League got involved. Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot, and Ben Affleck lent their voices in support over twitter, fans bought a Times Square billboard to rally for the cut, they even chartered a plane to fly a banner over Comic-Con, all in an effort to get Warner to release Snyder’s version.

THE PRESENTATION

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Energized by fan outcry the Snyders put together a presentation for the big wigs at Warner, HBO Max and DC. They shared with them how they planned on finishing the almost complete the Justice League Snyder Cut. Snyder also pitched what it would take to make the Snyder cut a reality. Everyone went away from the meeting excited about the prospect of it truly happening.

Of course, we all know what happened next. COVID-19. It almost completely derailed the project. Deborah recalls, “People thought, ‘It won’t be possible to ramp up, and that maybe this should go on the back burner.’ But we said, ‘No, this is the right time’ because our visual effects houses that rely on so much are running out of work, so now is the time to be doing this.” And it is.