What a long, strange road it's been for DC's Justice League. Though the film originally released in 2017 to unfavorable reviews, it's now 2021 and the project is due for an unexpected revival in the form of Zack Snyder's Justice League, an HBO Max exclusive four-hour long cut of the film, a move that is only possible because of sustained and intense fan support for Snyder to create his original vision.
Thanks to an interview with DC Film's Walter Hamada, audiences now know that the future of the DC film universe will not include any appearances from Zack Snyder, but he still has to be given some credit for being the backbone that launched this most recent shared universe. Beginning with Man of Steel, Snyder set the tone for the DC Universe films and how they would contrast the MCU, which was eventually supposed to culminate in Justice League, DC's answer to the Avengers films.
Of course, things didn't go quite as planned. Snyder had to leave the project for personal reasons and the studio was concerned about the reception to his previous film, Batman v. Superman. However, it seems that the studio meddling may have also had something to do with his decision, as Snyder has recently discussed his frustrations battling over the production of the film.
Around the time Snyder decided to leave the project, news broke that his daughter had tragically passed away and he was leaving the project to be with his family during a difficult time. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the time, Snyder discussed the decision, explaining that he in fact tried to keep working on the film for a while, hoping that it would help him keep going forward: "In my mind, I thought it was a cathartic thing to go back to work, to just bury myself and see if that was the way through it."
Things didn't quite work out that way though and the director now admits that the stressful production of Justice League was also a significant factor in him deciding to step back and hand the reins over to Joss Whedon: "I had no energy to fight [the studio], and fight for [the movie]. Literally, zero energy for that," Snyder said in an interview with author Sean O'Connell for the upcoming book Release the Snyder Cut. "I really think that's the main thing. I think there's a different world where I stayed and kind of tried... I had been beaten by what was going on in my life and I just didn't want to, I didn't care to . . . that was kind of where I was."
As someone trying to deal with a difficult film project on top of a family tragedy, no one can really blame Snyder for prioritizing his personal life over Justice League. At least now the director is getting the chance to show the world his original vision for the film and perhaps he can bring one last hurrah to the Snyder era of DC films.
Justice League will be released on HBO Max in 2021.
Source: Comicbook.com