Alongside Dune and King Richard, Zack Snyder's Justice League was one of Warner Bros. Discovery's best-received films of last year. However, much to the dismay of many DC fans, the studio somewhat laments releasing the 4-hour movie.
According to information gathered from a wider report, via Variety, some studio insiders believe Warner Bros. executives should have never given into fans’ demands and the #ReleasetheSnyderCut social media campaign, mostly because it hardened the position of Snyder's backers versus the studio’s leadership. Despite the Snyder Cut not being considered canon, it is widely seen as the superior version of Justice League, although the director’s vision has been scrapped numerous times by Warner.
Releasing the Snyder Cut would have then detracted from the current narrative that the new management is trying to establish. This has been largely inherited from Walter Hamada's tenure, though now without Batgirl and other canceled projects. Of course, those plans largely depend on what Warner Bros. will decide to do with The Flash, a film that is tasked with finally doing away completely with what remained of Snyder's Justice League and hitting the reset button on the DCEU, even though recent rescheduling will now see it come out before Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
As if that wasn’t enough, Warner Bros. still has to juggle two semi-successful remnants from the Snyder era, Wonder Woman and Superman. Gal Gadot's first Wonder Woman film was a massive hit, but the second fell short of such a level of success. Even if a third Wonder Woman is too good to pass on, it’s uncertain whether Henry Cavill will continue playing Superman, if the studio will pursue the idea of a Black Superman under J.J. Abrams and Ta-Nehisi Coates, or if they will simply go forward with both projects.
That last option would seem to align with Warner Bros.' plans for The Batman and Joker, both of which will continue their critically acclaimed standalone sagas, while also eventually finding a place for alternative versions of the characters in the MCU-like interconnected franchise CEO David Zaslav wants so badly. All things said, basically many people at Warner Bros. believe their jobs would be easier had previous management never released the Snyder Cut.
Indeed, if Warner Bros.' new plans involve focusing its efforts on big guaranteed rainmakers at the box office, perhaps having a couple of different versions of Batman and Superman is the way to go. Just not Zack Snyder's versions in case anyone is asking.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is now available on HBO Max.
Source: Variety