Zack Snyder Reacts to “Barbie”'s Joke About His “Justice League” Fan Base: ‘Pretty Good’

"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," Snyder said

Zack Snyder is getting candid about that Justice League joke in Barbie.

The Army of the Dead director, 57, opened up in the latest issue of Men’s Health about his thoughts on the film directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig as well as its reference to his 2021 cut of the superhero saga during one of its major plot points.

The joke happens right after America Ferrera’s character, Gloria, gives a passionate speech to the Barbies about what it means to be a woman in the real world, which snapped one of them (played by Alexandra Shipp) out of a trance that she was in. Shipp's character then says, “It’s like I’ve been in a dream where I was really invested in the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League.”

“I thought [Barbie] was great and I think the joke is pretty good,” Snyder told the outlet, adding that he thought the joke was “a hundred percent” directed more at the Justice League fandom than the movie itself.

Related: Everything to Know About the 'Barbie' Movie

He also revealed to Men’s Health that Warner Bros. CEO Michael DeLuca originally gave him and his wife, Deborah Snyder, a “heads up” about the nod. He recalled how DeLuca told his wife, who is also his producing partner on most of his projects, “Hey, there’s a reference to Justice League in the movie. It’s cool and whatever, I hope you guys understand. We think it’s awesome.”

After Snyder heard about it, he said he and his wife had a discussion about the cultural impact of their take on the Justice League.

“The thing that I said to Debbie 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,’ ” he said. “That’s pretty insane.”

The acclaimed filmmaker added, “‘You just need to step back for a second and go like, ‘Whoa, what did we do? What happened? How is that a thing?’ ”

Related: 'Zack Snyder's Justice League' Lands on HBO Max Today — Why the Movie Is a Big Deal

Snyder initially helmed Justice League but stepped away in the middle of filming following the death of his daughter Autumn. Warner Bros. hired The Avengers director Joss Whedon to take over directing duties, leading to major changes in the storyline, which prompted the social movement #ReleasetheSnyderCut.

The online social movement, #ReleasetheSnyderCut, was born out of fans' desires to see Snyder's original version of the 2017 film after they felt they were misled by Toby Emmerich, the Warner Bros. production president at the time. He told The Hollywood Reporter that Whedon's directing would be "minimal" and that the film would "adhere to the style and tone and the template that Zack set."

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In May 2020, almost three years to the day of Snyder's exit, Warner Bros. announced it would release Snyder's original version of the film on its streaming platform. Snyder told Variety around the time of the film’s release that "the four-hour version of the movie is exactly the way I would have made the movie if I made it with zero oversight."

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is now streaming on Max and Barbie will be available on the platform starting Dec. 15.

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