Justice League: Coronavirus Almost Kept the Snyder Cut From Happening

This past February a gathering of powerful people took place with the intention of deciding something that would make the internet shake, the fate of Zack Snyder‘s cut of Justice League. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder and his wife Deborah hosted “a select group of executives from Warner Bros., HBO Max, and DC” in their home to screen his version of the movie and hear a presentation from the filmmaker about what needed to be done to complete it. The trade notes that “executives left the meeting pumped,” but that their excitement quickly turned into dismay as it seemed work on the film may not get to happen at all due to the threat of the COVID019 coronavirus which had begun to spread in the United States.

“People thought, ‘It won’t be possible to ramp up, and that maybe this should go on the back burner,’” Deborah Snyder said. “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.”

As of this writing the scheduling for post-production work on the super-sized cut of the movie is ongoing and talks have only just begun with post-production houses about getting work done on the film ahead of its HBO Max release next year.

It’s unclear if the cut will be presented as one complete, four hour feature film, or divided into chapters on the streaming service, but Snyder and co. are reportedly “reassembling much of their original postproduction crew” to complete the film including a new score and new & old visual effects. There’s also the possibility some of the cast could return to record new dialogue.

Luckily for Snyder and WarnerMedia, most post-production houses are still hard at work in Hollywood and around the world despite continued lockdown orders thanks to the coronavirus. Visual effects companies like Scanline VFX Studios, currently working on films like Godzilla vs Kong and The Batman, have moved their entire team to work-from-home stations. As VFX companies complete their current workload with no footage from new shoots on the horizon, work on something that has been in the can for four years will offer them an opportunity to continue working and make a lot of DC fans happy around the world.

“I want to thank HBO Max and Warner Brothers for this brave gesture of supporting artists and allowing their true visions to be realized,” Snyder said when the announcement was made today. “Also a special thank you to all of those involved in the SnyderCut movement for making this a reality.”