After Years of Waiting, the 'Snyder Cut' of 'Justice League' Finally Has a Release Date

Brady Langmann
·5 min read
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From Esquire

It's been a long three years since Justice League debuted in November of 2017. (Seriously—it's only been that long.) Since then, we've seen a Margot Robbie-fronted Birds of Prey feature, and Joaquin Phoenix nab an Oscar for playing the Joker. Oh, and the first look at Batinson. And that's only DC's superhero films. Marvel wrapped up a 23-movie-long saga in that window.

What's probably made that amount of time even longer: The never-ending fan outcry for the "Snyder Cut" of Justice League, an alternate (and hopefully, better) version of the critically-panned superhero team-up from director Zack Snyder. After the news that the director's new version of the film would hit HBO Max, we now have a release date: March 18, 2021. Which should give you plenty of time to study up on the footage of the Snyder Cut we've seen so far, plus all of the drama leading up to it. We have it all compiled here.

First up: in mid-November, HBO Max and Snyder released a black-and-white, over two-minute-long trailer for the film. It doesn't give us too much—it's mostly a supercut of Justice League moments we already saw in the theatrical version and the 30-second first look. That said, we do get a couple new looks at Darkseid (Big! Scary! Bad guy!), a fresh couple of action shots of the Justice League out there deliverin' justice, and another rousing rendition of "Hallelujah." The trailer came on Justice League's three-year anniversary, which feels like more of a trip than anything we see in the preview.

And why's that? Well, if you're unfamiliar with this particular fan vs. studio saga, let's get you up to date: Way back in the before times, Snyder was tapped to direct Justice League after helming Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. In May 2017, with the film set to release the following November, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Snyder’s daughter, Autumn, had died by suicide, so he would step away from Justice League to be with his family. At the time, he said, “I’ve decided to take a step back from the movie to be with my family, be with my kids, who really need me. They are all having a hard time. I’m having a hard time.”

Warner Bros. brought on Joss Whedon, who directed the first two Avengers films, to finish the film. And when Justice League debuted in November 2017, it was welcomed with iffy reviews and a disappointing box office pull. This is when things get weird and a little confusing. Charles Roven, a producer for Justice League, told The Washington Times that Whedon reshot somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of the movie. That doesn’t totally clear with what Justice League became, which views like Snyder v Whedon—shifting constantly between the former director’s penchant for desaturated explosions, and the other’s funny quip-per-second style. Which had fans wondering… how much of Snyder’s original vision was compromised when Whedon joined the project? (Keep in mind: this all doesn't even include the allegations Cyborg actor Ray Fisher has leveled against Whedon in recent months.)

Enter the Change.org petition. Ultimately racking up close to 200,000 supporters, it calls for the release of Snyder’s director’s cut, with an epic angry essay attached: “Fans have been waiting for years, while others have waited decades for the film to finally arrive on the silver screen. The 2hr runtime is disrespectful towards Zack Snyder’s vision and towards the fans who have waited for more than a year to see the alien’s story come to an end.”

Evidence of a significantly different film emerged, too. Shortly after Justice League’s release, footage cut from the film leaked on Vimeo, showing additional Cyborg scenes, an appearance from Kiersey Clemons’s cut Iris West, and more Martha Kent-Superman footage. Darkseid, who’s kind of like the Thanos of the DC Universe, was allegedly supposed to be introduced in the film too. Warner Bros., of course, squashed all the fun and wouldn’t release the Snyder Cut.

Which leads us all the way to March 2019, when fans asked Snyder once and for all if his version of Justice League exists. He said, "All I can say is... sure there's a cut... it's done. I have a cut. I have a bunch of them. So, it's not like... that's up to them [Warner Bros.]."

Then, years after Justice League was initially released, Snyder and co. began revving back up the call for the Snyder Cut.

This takes us to Snyder's HBO Max announcement, which confirmed, once and for all, that the Snyder Cut was alive and well. Let's move to the big question: What can we expect when we finally see this thing? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder has a lot of material to work with and is currently deciding how best to release it:

It is currently unclear what form Snyder’s Justice League will take. Whether it will be released as an almost four-hour director’s cut or split into six "chapters" has yet to be decided, but the Snyders are now in the midst of reassembling much of their original postproduction crew to score, cut, add new and finish old visual effects, and, yes, maybe bring back many of the actors to record additional dialogue.

"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 says of his cut of the film, which sources tell THR will cost somewhere between $20-$30 million to finish. "You probably saw one-fourth of what I did."

Let's hope it was worth the wait.

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