The Zack Snyder Cut of Justice League is Coming to HBO Max
In a truly shocking announcement yesterday, HBO Max revealed that they were releasing Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut in 2021. The brand new streaming service—launching on May 27—will be showing Snyder’s version of the film in what The Hollywood Reporter says could be a four-hour director’s cut, or, possibly, in six different TV-style chapters. Snyder is reuniting with his original postproduction crew to work on new visual effects, score, and edit his vision for the film.
HBO Max made it official on Twitter yesterday:
#ReleaseTheSnyderCut. Only on HBO Max 2021. @ZackSnyder https://t.co/cfXCK1B6pA pic.twitter.com/hqeA9i7tTL
— HBO Max (@hbomax) May 20, 2020
Here’s a portion of what Warner Media had to say about the legitimately surprising news:
“After global passionate fan calls to action and the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement, HBO Max and Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that it will exclusively world premiere Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of the Warner Bros. Pictures/DC feature film Justice League in 2021. Snyder surprised fans with the news this morning during a live online commentary of his film Man of Steel with Henry Cavill. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut first became a passionate rallying social media cry among fans in 2017 and has not let up. From countless press articles and hundreds of thousands of social media mentions, it became a powerful global movement among cinephiles and comic book fans.”
“I want to thank HBO Max and Warner Brothers for this brave gesture of supporting artists and allowing their true visions to be realized. Also a special thank you to all of those involved in the SnyderCut movement for making this a reality,” said Snyder.
Then, three of the film’s stars—Henry Cavill, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher revealed their own excitement via Instagram:
View this post on InstagramFor those who fought. For those who believed. Thank you. #releasethesnydercut @HBOMax @ZackSnyder
Once again, the power of the hashtag reveals itself. It’s incredible to think that two years after #ReleaseTheSnyderCut trended worldwide on Justice League‘s two-year anniversary, this is happening. As THR reported, Warner Bros. chairman Toby Emmerich called Synder and said, “This is real. People out there want it. Would you guys ever consider doing something?”
That something will be a completely novel alternate release of a major motion picture on a streaming platform four years after the film was released. The Snyder Cut will require Snyder and Deborah Snyder, his wife and producing partner, to pull off some feats worthy of Superman himself. They’ll need to figure out how to assemble the cast for ADR (additional dialogue) and their original postproduction crew for all of the VFX, score, and editing work, and do so during a global pandemic that has essentially shuttered filmmaking worldwide. Yet the fact that Warner Bros. and HBO Max are behind this means that this can, and will, happen.
“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 told The Hollywood Reporter. He also told THR he still hasn’t seen the version of Justice League that was released into theaters in November of 2017.
“When Zack and Debbie shared the extraordinary vision of where Zack wanted to take Justice League, my team and our counterparts at Warner Bros. took it as a mission to solve the many issues that stood in the way,” said Kevin Reilly, Chief Content Officer at HBO Max, President, TNT, TBS, and truTV, in the Warner Media release. “Thanks to the partnership at Warner Bros. and the relentless pursuit of the entire WarnerMax team we are able to deliver this incredibly exciting moment for Zack, the fans, and HBO Max.”
“Thanks to the efforts of a lot of people, we’re excited to bring fans this highly anticipated version of Justice League,” said Toby Emmerich, Chairman, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, in the same release. “This feels like the right time to share Zack’s story, and HBO Max is the perfect platform for it. We’re glad the creative planets aligned, allowing us to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut.”
