Holy crap, HBO Max is actually going to release the "Snyder Cut" of Justice League
Well, internet, you did it. Good job! After three years of viciously arguing with strangers and then evolving into some kind of unexpectedly positive fan community with an unmatched ability to bend social media trending topics to your will, Warner Bros. is going to release the so-called “Snyder Cut” of the crummy Justice League movie—as in #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. It’ll be happening on WB’s upcoming streaming platform HBO Max, which announced today in a press release that it will “exclusively world premiere” the new version of the movie at some point in 2021. (The phrasing there seems to imply that Warner Bros. will be happy to sell you the Snyder Cut at some point after that.)
In a statement, Justice League director Zack Snyder thanked WB and HBO Max for the “brave gesture of supporting artists and allowing their true visions to be realized,” seemingly ignoring the fact that it was Warner Bros. that released the original theatrical version of the film in the first place. That version of the movie included controversial reshoots directed by Joss Whedon, though they were mostly controversial because people were disappointed with the finished product and believed that Snyder—who stepped down from finishing the film in 2017 after the unexpected death of his daughter—would’ve been able to make a better movie without the studio’s machinations. When rumors began to spread that Snyder had finished more of the movie than originally suggested, the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement was born.
As for how this all finally happened, The Hollywood Reporter has an interview with Snyder where he breaks down some of the details—including his assertion that this will be “an entirely new thing” and not just a slightly modified version of the theatrical release. Apparently they’re bringing in the original post-production crew to edit the film, update the score, and finish the visual effects left over from Snyder’s unreleased version (which Kevin Smith says he saw a while back), supposedly bringing the cost to somewhere between $20 million and $30 million. So yeah, they’re absolutely going to put this on a Blu-ray and make you pay for it).
At the very least, this will give Warner Bros. another chance to do something with Henry Cavill’s mustache.