Zack Snyder is getting ready to release his version of Justice League on HBO Max. Nicknamed by fans as the "Snyder-cut" the director's version of the 2017 DC team-up film is officially titled Zack Snyder's Justice League and will be released as a single, four-hour-long movie on the streaming service. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/27/justice-league-inside-the-snyder-cut-with-zack-snyder-ign-fan-fest-2021"] At IGN Fan Fest 2021, the director sat down with us to go in-depth on this new version of Justice League answering questions from us and fans online. There were plenty of details from Snyder ranging from information about new characters in the movie like Deathstroke and Jared Leto's Joker, as well as a chance to hear Snyder himself explain the backstory of his and Ben Affleck's version of Batman. But the full Fan Fest interview was chock-full of other details about the film. Here are the biggest things we learned about Zack Snyder's Justice League from Zack Snyder himself, plus the exclusive clip he brought to the virtual event below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/27/zack-snyders-justice-league-the-mother-box-origins-exclusive-clip-ign-fan-fest-2021"]
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/14/zack-snyders-justice-league-official-trailer"]
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- For fans waiting for the definitive version of Snyder’s Justice League, the version being released on HBO Max will be the director’s final word as he tells IGN that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is “essentially the same movie” he was finishing in 2017.
- When Snyder finished his cut of Justice League back in 2016 there was an “even longer version that he and editor David Brenner cut down to hit four hours. “We just did some tightening and put the screws to it a little bit more to get it close to four hours,” says Snyder. (IGN has now confirmed the film's exact running time to be 4 hours and 2 minutes.) The version coming to HBO Max will be “essentially” the same as this original director’s cut, Snyder promises.
- When talking about the discussions with Warner Bros. to finally release this version of Justice League, Zack Snyder cites the fan support as being key to finally getting the Snyder-Cut out. The director shared that fan support was the “perfect storm that allowed [Zack Snyder’s Justice League] to become reality."
- Zack Snyder’s Justice League “fills in a couple of impossible gaps that I thought were never going to see the light of day.”
- When asked by Sarwar Jiwani on Twitter what cut content he’s most excited for fans to see in his Justice League, Snyder tells IGN that it’s Cyborg’s backstory. “To me, [Cyborg’s backstory is] such an important part of the movie, and his whole arc and journey is so important. There was just really cool stuff that we shot and that we created that I was really excited for fans to see.”
- During the IGN Fan Fest, Zack Snyder shared the opening credits of his Justice League coming to HBO Max. Styled after a classical Roman tableau, the opening shows the various Justice League heroes immortalized as gods. But eagle-eyed viewers will have plenty of reasons to rewatch the opening, according to Snyder.
- “There’s a million Easter eggs” in the Justice League opening, Snyder says. “We just all started doodling and it became this fine art piece on its own that really talks about the Mother Boxes and the characters’ origins, and I find it really beautiful and immersive, and yeah, it’s super fun,” Snyder says.
- Snyder says that, while an episodic release was considered, it “got complicated” – possibly due to contractual difficulties – and ultimately fans "would've been mad if they had to wait weeks" for an episodic Justice League to be completed. The movie was always filmed as a single piece with a six-chapter structure, which is how it will be released.
- Chapter 1 of the movie will be titled ‘Don’t Count On It Batman’, and Chapter 2 will be ‘The Age of Heroes’.
- Snyder says the newer films featuring members of the Justice League haven’t altered his creative decisions for the characters in the movie. “This film was finished before those films were probably even shot,” he explains, “and so I stayed the course with my point of view.
- “I think you can view my Snyderverse version of the DC superhero canon as its own thing. I love Patty and James and what they've done with their movies and are amazing, but at this point I was just like, this is its own thing and it doesn't really owe anything to anything, so I'm just going to do it exactly as I had always intended.”
- Snyder explained some backstory for his version of Batman, saying that the 20 years of crime fighting under his utility belt probably led to the grayer morals than we’re used to seeing from the character. “Our Bruce had a higher moral or stronger moral compass when he first started crime-fighting in Gotham 20 years ago,” the director explains, “but he's seen a lot of rough stuff happen over the years and I think that he's a bit jaded now, obviously. The death of Robin and others, I think that he now has found himself in a dark place but, yes, the whole point was that the death of Superman really shakes him out of that and puts him on this really cathartic path to form the Justice League and do his part.”
- There were long conversations with the studio about whether to put Superman in a black-and-silver suit, and the crew devised a way in which the suit could be easily color-corrected in post. “I was a big advocate [of the black suit],” Snyder explained, “they were not so much, and we would go back and forth. I said, ‘Okay, let me just at least do some tests to see if I could put him in the black suit and what it would look like.’ We devised a method in which we could easily turn the suit, using the existing suit, to the black and silver suit that you see in the movie. We knew exactly how to do it when we went into it and, as I say, it was always my intention to have him in that suit and it's glorious he's in that.”
- Snyder added last that seeing the suit in that style was a thrill: “It was cool, yeah, I got to admit, because the first thing we did was a quick test to make sure that we had all our ducks in a row. Just seeing it, we all just sat back like, wow, are we really doing this?”
- Replying to a question from actor Harry Lennix, Snyder explained how Lennix’s General Calvin Swanwick and Martian Manhunter are connected in the new movie after we learned the alien superhero would be revealed. “In my mind, Swanwick and Martian Manhunter, it's like his alter-ego. That's kind of the way I see it. If you notice the way he's manipulated both Lois and Clark to do their best, to be the best they can be, because in this incarnation he wants humanity to do it themselves and/or this new hero in Superman. I think that that's kind of the way I see it – that they have the same voice.”
- Synder reiterated that Cyborg is the heart of his version of Justice League, saying “Everything turns on him, everything turns on the stakes that are presented to him, the events that befall him within the context of the film.” However, he makes clear that – despite the character being dropped from the upcoming Flash adaptation – he doesn’t see this as a standalone moment of the character, and says there’s still a story left to tell. “He's an amazing character and it's great to see him really realize that on the movie when you see it. You're going to realize that Cyborg is [the] tip of the iceberg, in my opinion, so who knows?”
- Jared Leto’s Joker makes an appearance in the film, with a new look based on his appearance in the post-apocalyptic ‘Knightmare’ reality Batman witnesses. It’s a cameo that wasn’t a part of the original script, but one Snyder says “is all about just trying to fulfill the promise of having the Joker in this universe and not having [him and Batman] come together. always wanted him to be in the nightmare reality, and so it was a great opportunity. When I talked to Jared and he was interested in doing it, I just felt like, okay, this feels like a thing I can't pass up.”
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- Snyder says that the movie ends on “a massive cliffhanger”, which would potentially have connected to Snyder’s plans for other Justice League movies. However, it sounds as though those plans may not make it past the ideas stage: “Well, it was meant to be two more movies. [This movie] doesn't really encompass any of the additional movies other than little... It hints, as you would, at a potential other world. I'd plant the seeds as I had wanted to of what would come in the later films. That's in there, but as far as those stories, that would be to come if ever that happened – which it does not look like it would.”
- Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke has already been confirmed, but Snyder explained how the traditional villain will fit in alongside the heroes: “When we find him, clearly he and Batman have struck some sort of a deal and they have a bit of a partnership. There's a bigger enemy, I guess. They're not locked in mortal combat. They're actually working together to try to figure out how to make this world work.”
- Snyder hinted that Darkseid was intended to be the villain in a notional Justice League 2, but made clear he will make a major contribution to this film: “He's certainly the sequel bad guy, but he definitely is in full effect. He's running the show. He's there. I don't want to, again, spoil it but, yeah, he's definitely there.”
- As for why he’s there, Snyder says Darkseid has “tons of human motivation”, not just a quest to conquer. “He operates on another plane, but certainly something happened to him in the past and he's not happy about it, and it's really hurt him. It's shaped him and he's looking to make it right, and so I think there's a lot of nuance in him and Ray [Porter] does a great job of voicing him.”
- As for Steppenwolf, the villain of Joss Whedon’s cut of Justice League, Snyder explains that he and Darkseid have a “very complicated” relationship: “I'm not going to give it away but the dynamic between the two of them, some things happened in the past. There's a bunch of issues between them and so, yeah, I think that all plays out. Yes, the answer is there's quite a complex relationship there.”
- Snyder was asked whether he would accept an offer to make Justice League 2 but was a little cagey about what his answer would be. “That's very hypothetical. I think that I would say, I would believe it when I see it, and happy to cross that bridge when I see it approaching.”
- There’s long been discussion over who inhabited an empty Kryptonian pod in Man of Steel – and some wondered whether that mystery would be solved in the Snyder Cut. Sadly, the mystery will seemingly go on, and may never be solved. “It definitely is in Justice League,” Snyder says of the pod. “They pass it and they look at it. They don't talk about it but, yeah, that is an open question, and I would hope at some point to find out who was in there, what's going on.”
- IGN said a [HASH=3551]#ReleaseTheOpenPodAnswer[/HASH] hashtag would surely spring up, to which Snyder replied, “There already is, trust me. Yeah, you're not getting that one, not for a while anyway, or ever.” And if you were wondering whether there even is a definitive answer, Snyder made clear he knows who was in there.
- Zack Snyder, who is already releasing Justice League in a full-screen, 1.33:1 aspect ratio, also revealed that there is a black and white version of the movie dubbed the “Justice is Gray” edition. Snyder says he is a “huge advocate of and a huge admirer of,” this version of the movie and that it is his “favorite version of the movie.” IGN has confirmed this version will also be coming to HBO Max, although its exact release date remains TBD.
- The Justice is Gray edition will be released on HBO Max “at some point” after the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. But beyond that, Snyder hopes to one day tour the full four-hour-long version of Justice League on IMAX once theaters are safe to re-open, and it will include a “beautiful intermission, Junkie XL intermission,” according to Snyder. “It’s an afternoon and into evening experience that’s pretty cool.” However, there are no plans for the IMAX experience at this time.
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