The release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League was, to many fans, the ultimate embodiment of a director being able to see their vision through. However, according to Snyder, even his cut of the film had humor added to it by Warner Bros and DC.
Warner Bros. interfering with DC projects is no secret to anyone who followed the SnyderVerse series, with the the most notable example being David Ayer’s disavowal of the 2016 Suicide Squad film, which he claimed was nothing like his original cut. In a recent interview with the Russo Brothers on their Pizza Film School podcast, Snyder revealed that the studio also put their thumb on the scale when it came to the tone of Justice League:
“I’ll be honest that when the script…what happened with ‘Justice League’ is we had a very…the original script was much darker and weirder.” Snyder told the Russos. “And then when ‘Batman v Superman’ came out and the studio was like, ‘It’s not funny enough. People want funnier movies. They want funny stuff in it,’ we did go back, and… lightened the movie, overall. And I would say that ‘Justice League,’ my cut of ‘Justice League,’ is a sort of in-between. I always preserved some of the more intense stuff that I shot anyway. I thought they would, in retrospect, they would maybe want, making sure I, of course, had what was on the page.
Many fans may be disheartened to hear that even the Snyder Cut didn’t live true to Zack Snyder’s original vision. Despite a number of controversial decisions such as originally including a romance between Batman and Lois Lane, many fans connected with the bold new direction Snyder tried to take these characters. While his true plans likely won’t come to fruition anytime soon, fans can at least enjoy the memories at the upcoming Snydercon event to celebrate his era of DC Comics films.
The SnyderVerse era is over for now
The term “SnyderVerse” refers to the interconnected film universe that Zack Snyder created, which began with Man of Steel and continued with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Those plans have been scrapped in favor of an interconnected DC Universe consisting of film, television, animation and video game projects, with James Gunn and Peter Safran at the helm.
Despite its mixed reception, the SnyderVerse has a dedicated fanbase that appreciates Zack Snyder’s DC Universe vision. Fans have praised the SnyderVerse films for their darker tone and mature storytelling. They have also criticized Warner Bros. and DC’s interference with Snyder’s DCU plans, which they believe resulted in the lackluster final product of Justice League.
In 2021, Zack Snyder released his four-hour long Justice League cut on the WarnerMedia streaming service HBO Max. His version of Justice League was well received by fans and critics alike, who praised its improvement over the original version of the movie, which was overseen by Joss Whedon. The release of the Snyder Cut has reignited interest in the SnyderVerse and sparked speculation about its future.
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