Only in the comic book genre could a movie that earned over $650 million at the box office fail to even turn a profit, but the story of Justice League has been far from straightforward. After Zack Snyder left the project, Joss Whedon took over and shot a huge amount of new footage under strict orders from the studio, and the joins between his work and Snyder’s was patently obvious as a result.
Fans unanimously rejected the theatrical edition of Justice League, and focused their efforts on bombarding Warner Bros. via the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign instead. While it wasn’t as simple as an intern heading into the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark and prying open the crate marked ‘Snyder Cut,’ after two and a half years of relentless campaigning their wish was finally granted and Zack Snyder’s Justice League will arrive on HBO Max next year.
Now that the revised take on Justice League is really happening, there’s an overwhelming weight of expectation attached to it. Nobody seems to even be entertaining the possibility, but there’s still a chance it could turn out to be even worse that the cut of the movie that originally landed in theaters, but let’s hope that’s not the case.
Not only has Snyder been handed a huge wad of cash to finally put his original vision together, but a lot of fans are expecting it to be the greatest comic book movie ever. While that sounds like a tall order, there’s no denying that it’s without a doubt one of the most highly-anticipated blockbusters in recent memory.
The filmmaker is fully aware of the pressure he’s under, too, and admitted that without the studio leaning over his shoulder, the responsibility falls squarely on him to deliver the Justice League that he believes the fans want to see.
“I think really, the big pressure on me is just for it to be exactly true to itself. And I know that sounds obvious, but we as storytellers and as filmmakers, a lot of times there’s a lot of different powers that push and move and change what you’re doing as you’re doing it.”
We’ve already seen a brief glimpse of Darkseid on the battlefield, and Snyder has teased that new footage could be arriving this weekend, but it will be a while yet before we get a clearer idea of how the all-new Justice League is coming together.
