2017’s Justice League is commonly seen as one of the biggest flops in recent memory. With a massively ballooned budget of $250M, likely more when encapsulating Joss Whedon’s reshoots, the film had to do extremely well to meet basic expectations. As soon as Justice League hit theaters, fans immediately discerned a massive problem. It was reflected with an abysmal box office showing and changed the direction of the franchise to come. As soon as Justice League released, calls for the Snyder Cut began just as fast. With Zack Snyder confirming the cut on video, it is time to look back and show why it’s always been obvious.
In November 2017, a week after the original release of the film, I tweeted that the Snyder Cut exists and it even comes with mostly finished VFX and even a good amount of Junkie XL’s score. My source was well trusted and vetted and other notable fans preached the same. At the time, there was not as much public information present but since then, we have countless bits of information that scream the obviousness of the situation. Yes the Snyder Cut is real. But the question was never one of its existence, at least it shouldn’t have been, but whether it would ever be released.
Last weekend, Zack Snyder hosted his Director’s Cut event at the ArtCenter College of Design. Showcasing three of his films, Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen and Batman v Superman. The weekend was meant to celebrate his work and raise money to renovate the Ahmanson Auditorium. The event was a success and all 3 days generated a full house of fans and students looking to gain information and have a great experience. The Q&As however, had a different fallout, with national media attention focused on Snyder’s answers to the questions asked. Chief among them was during the Watchmen panel, where Zack spoke on the impact of the film on the medium and what it says about the comic book movie goldmine we are seeing today. Controversy over Zack’s quotes about Batman and killing, were only a small part of a larger answer about the impact of Watchmen; much of the media outcry came from here. Batman v Superman’s Q&A was tame in comparison but had tidbits about Snyder’s original vision for Justice League.
It is worth pointing out that Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio’s original Justice League script was never shot and was rewritten after the reactions of Batman v Superman. Many sites rushed to the conclusion of “See we told you it wasn’t real” but it only speaks to how little they have been paying attention. The Snyder Cut of Justice League is the second script of the film and finished principle shooting before the eventual reshoots.
Like the tile mentioned, the Snyder Cut existing has been obvious for years. Why? Well for the simple reason that anyone who has worked on it has confirmed it. Jay Oliva, who came on our podcast last year, not only confirmed it exists, but spelled out the scenes he actually worked on for the film.
“I did from the time they arrived to the nuclear reactor all the way to the end of the fight, There’s a couple stuff that when I watched the film I was like, ‘Well, what happened to that?’ because I was really looking forward to seeing it because I’ve done some crazy stuff. I tried to top what I’ve done with Superman. When Superman comes back, I had done some really crazy stuff like Superman unhinged.”
Aside from Jay, Clay Enos joined our podcast as well, speaking on the legitimacy of the Snyder Cut and even the possible scenarios of it releasing. To add to it, Cyborg himself, Ray Fisher has confessed multiple times the Snyder Cut is real. During an appearance at Heroes and Villains Fan Fest New Jersey, Fisher said “And Zack probably shot enough footage in the first film to make like two movies out of. He definitely had a whole, I believe, a trilogy in mind, with respect to Justice League. And if his vision had sort of come to fruition, Cyborg would have probably been one of, if not the most powerful, metahuman in the entire canon, in the film universe. And that’s just one of the crazy things about Zack, is that he can take someone who’s such a newcomer and evolve their powers to the point where, you know, Cyborg is like ‘S tier.'”
If Ray Fisher wasn’t enough, Jason Momoa literally made waves when he spoke on his “obsession” for the Snyder Cut.
To keep this brief, I did not even begin to get into dozens of Snyder’s own comments on the Cut, his sharing of shots from his film and all but confirming it multiple time. But for the sake of hearing it from his own mouth, Zack has finally put that argument to bed too. Zack spoke to multiple fans in person who asked him about the cut, one interaction, linked below, has the clearest confirmation one could need.
“All I’ll tell you is… [the Snyder cut] is done,” Snyder explains. “I have a lot of [cuts]. I would love to [release it]… but that’s up to them,” the ‘them’ being Warner Bros.
So there you have it. Fans have known arguing on the legitimacy of the Snyder Cut is mostly a waste of time. It has always been obvious it is real for those who even did the basic sense of research. Yet, it does not solve the bigger issue, releasing the cut. In some ways, fans campaigning for its release can feel slightly more at ease knowing that finally, the larger blogger verse is covering the Snyder Cut’s existence. Does that mean the Cut is on the way soon? Unfortunately that is a different ball game. One could hope that if the DCEU franchise continues to expand, fans continue to express their interest in seeing the Snyder Cut, and the larger media sphere keeps it in the conversation, perhaps there is a finish line in sight.
You must be logged in to post a comment.