Over the course of the three years between when Zack Snyder left the Justice League director’s chair, and when he announced that WarnerMedia was set to release the director’s cut of the movie on HBO Max, the filmmaker apparently feared being sued by Warner Bros. if he too closely embraced the fans who were conducting the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement. The successful hashtag campaign started almost instantly after the comic book blockbuster failed to launch in 2017, and Snyder’s fans were relentless in bombarding virtually every Warner Bros. post on social media with #ReleaseTheSnyderCut for three years. During that time, Snyder subtly signaled his support for the movement, but stopped short of actually using the hashtag or openly embracing the fan campaign.
Most filmmakers have a morals clause, a non-disclosure agreement, or other contractual stipulation that would prevent them from disparaging the movie or the studio. It’s possible that, given the Snyder Cut movement’s frequent, harsh criticisms of Warner Bros., Snyder had a legitimate concern that he could run into trouble if he was perceived as leading the movement directly.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“I was more worried the studio would sue me. Do something to silence me,” Snyder told The Times.
He also dismissed the idea that the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut fandom is primarily made up of bad actors, a claim that has
“Here’s the reality,” Snyder said. “That fandom raised $750,000 for suicide prevention and mental health awareness. They’ve saved lives. That’s a fact. But on the other hand, was it fun to provoke them? For a clickable thing? Yes. And they were an easy target. But they continue to raise money. There are not a lot of fan communities whose primary objective, other than seeing work of a guy they like, realized their other main thing was to bring awareness to mental health and suicide prevention. For me, it’s kind of hard to be mad at them.”
In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman (Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.
You can see Zack Snyder’s Justice League — in color, or in the black-and-white “Justice is Gray” edition — on HBO Max.
