Zack Snyder Breaks Silence on Barbie’s Snyder Cut Joke

There was a lot to talk about with regards to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, from its star-studded ensemble cast to its costuming to its box office impact. One of the smaller, buzzed-about elements of the movie was its pop culture Easter eggs — including a reference to the 2021 HBO Max film Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Midway through Barbie, Writer Barbie (Alexandra Shipp) admits she felt like she was “very invested” in Zack Snyder’s Justice League while brainwashed by the hyper-masculine Kens of Barbieland. Given how notorious the “Snyder Cut” has become online over the years, the film’s reference caught a lot of attention — and apparently, even Snyder himself is fond of it.

“I thought [Barbie] was great,” Snyder explained in a recent interview with Men’s Health. “And I think the joke is pretty good… The thing that I said to [my wife, Deborah Snyder] is – the thing that you need to take a second and think about is that your name is so seamlessly sewed together with a pop culture phenomenon so big it can exist as a joke in a movie about Barbie. That’s pretty insane. You just need to step back for a second and go like, ‘Whoa, what did we do? What happened? How is that a thing?’”

Why Did Barbie Reference the Snyder Cut?

As director and co-writer Greta Gerwig explained to ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview, the reference to Zack Snyder’s Justice League in Barbie felt like a natural thing to include in the finished film.

“Because I don’t have a dog in this fight, I didn’t even really know, I knew it was a thing,” Gerwig explained. “I don’t know the contours of all the ins and outs. But it’s the kind of thing that I vaguely know. But I think that was the thing, that it was like if [Writer Barbie] had a vague knowledge of, and then all of a sudden in a certain state, it really meant a lot to her, and then it went away.”

Did Barbie Reference Blade Runner?

According to Gerwig, before the Snyder Cut reference made its way into Barbie, there was actually a line referencing 1982’s Blade Runner, and the infamous debate over its voiceover element. There were very brief plans to include Blade Runner director Ridley Scott in Barbie in a cameo appearance, but it did not pan out.

“One of the Barbies says to Ken, ‘Oh my god, I never would have realized that Deckard was a replicant,’” Gerwig recalled with a laugh. “Then when she gets unbrainwashed, there’s a version where she said, ‘I liked the voiceover. I needed it to help me understand what was happening. Nobody’s following this.’”

“It wasn’t making fun of him. We loved him as we love all of our references,” Baumbach said, with Gerwig adding, “Every reference we had was out of love. We love Sly Stallone. Everything was a lighters-up tribute.”

What do you think of Zack Snyder’s reaction to Barbie‘s Snyder Cut joke? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!