Warner Bros. is seemingly once again denying the existence of Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League.
In an article from Rolling Stone, an example was given of Warner Bros. attempting to distance itself from Snyder and his work. Leslie Iwerks, a documentary filmmaker with such credits as 2006's Recycled Life, 2007's The Pixar Story and 2019's The Imagineering Story, is said to have asked to license clips from the 2021 version of Justice League for a history of DC. In response, Iwerks was told that the 2017 version of Justice League is the only one there is.
What Happened With Justice League?
The original version of Justice League was originally helmed by Snyder and saw the titular team taking on Steppenwolf, a major villain associated with Darkseid, the leader of Apokolips. However, the director left the project after the death of his daughter. Warner Bros. then hired Joss Whedon to finish the film, resulting in substantial changes to the project during reshoots. Whedon has since said getting involved with Justice League was a mistake.
When the Whedon version of Justice League released, critics were negative about the film, and at the time of writing, the movie only holds a 39 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The project also only made a little less than $658 million at the worldwide box office, which was lower than Justice League's projected break-even point, making the film a financial loss for Warner Bros. This resulted in the studio opting to retool and refocus the DC Extended Universe.
What Is Zack Snyder's Justice League?
Following the poor performance of Whedon's Justice League, a fan campaign began to have Warner Bros. bring Snyder back to finish his version of the film. While the company initially denied the existence of the project, Snyder did eventually get to do his own cut of the movie, which released on HBO Max in 2021. There have been further calls to restore the SnyderVerse, which was the director's original vision for the DCEU, but executives have noted on several occasions that there are currently no plans in that regard. Critically, Zack Snyder's Justice League, which is the official title for the director's cut of the movie, holds a 71 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The film also earned solid streaming numbers on HBO Max.
Both Justice League and Zack Snyder's Justice League are available to stream now on HBO Max.
Source: Rolling Stone