Warning — This article contains major spoilers for Zack Snyder's Justice League.
Zack Snyder's Justice League has now finally been released after nearly four years of fans wanting to see the director's vision for DC's greatest heroes. DC fans clamored for The Snyder Cut very soon after 2017's Justice League was finished by director Joss Whedon and released into theaters. After poor critical reviews and an underwhelming box office performance, fans were left disappointed but knew there may be a better version out there.
It was clear that a lot of Whedon's cut was different from Snyder's original version. Most famously, Snyder would not have featured a Superman that had a CGI upper lip because actor Henry Cavill was contractually obligated to have a mustache at the time of reshoots.
The final film released on HBO Max by Snyder was just over four hours long, certainly longer than what Warner Bros. would've ever approved for theaters. This begs the question, even if Snyder hadn't had to set down from the project in 2017, would that had been the real Snyder Cut?
It is clear that WarnerMedia gave Snyder complete control over this final product, but the director has just revealed significant changes could've been made in a 2017 theatrical Snyder Cut.
WARNER BROS. DISAPPROVED OF SPEED FORCE SCENE
In a recent interview with Yahoo! Zack Snyder revealed that Warner Bros. never wanted The Flash to rewind time in Justice League. Snyder said, "That was always a bone of contention with the studio: They didn’t want him running back through time there.”
Snyder also mentioned an unconscious influence from the Crisis on Infinite Earths comics for Flash's climatic Speed Force scene.
“It’s one of those things that when you start to dig into it, you go down a rabbit hole. It absolutely could have started there, because we do love the comics and often go, ‘Hey, it should look like that.’”
Kevin Andrew Smith, one of the visual effects supervisors, said the rewinding time sequence needed to "feel like time is running appropriately slow in reverse, as the whole world comes back together again."
“We focused on the fact that everybody dies after the Mother Box explodes, and played into a kind of super-detailed destruction. Then the Flash comes through the door and you’ve got to make it feel like time is running appropriately slow in reverse, as the whole world comes back together again. There’s so much going on in that sequence: Cyborg is by the Mother Boxes, Superman’s on the other side and Darkseid is visible through the portal. You’ve got to tell the story of each shot and string all those stories together for a sequence while all these big simulations are also happening. It can be really easy to lose track of the story you’re trying to tell and not lose the thread for that kind of sequence.”
SAVING THE SPEED FORCE FOR THE FLASH MOVIE?
The aforementioned scene of Flash reversing time to save the lives of his comrades is one of the best in the film for many DC fans. Barry Allen taps into the Speed Force and shows how incredibly powerful his abilities are. This leads to the ultimate defeat of Steppenwolf, but also would've led the team to Darkseid's attack (and Knightmare) in a sequel film, Snyder has revealed.
He told Yahoo!, "Darkseid would have come to Earth, and Lex would have figured out the Anti-Life Equation and given it to him upon his arrival. He also gives Darkseid the knowledge that if he kills Lois, Superman will succumb to Anti-Life. The Earth falls, and Flash has to go back in time to stop Lois being killed. That’s really the linchpin of the whole thing.”
Unfortunately for fans calling for DC Films and Warner Bros to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse, WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff recently said The Snyder Cut is "the completion of his trilogy." DC Films is moving away from Snyder, but Ezra Miller's Barry Allen will soon be getting his own solo film.
Production is set to begin at the end of April, Ben Affleck will be back as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and even Michael Keaton will reportedly don the cape and cowl in the upcoming Flash movie. It is clear that this Flash film is a major part of Warner Bros.'s plans for the future, and it's conceivable to think that they wanted to save The Flash using the Speed Force to reverse time for his own film.
The Snyder Cut displayed how incredibly powerful of a hero Barry Allen it seems fans will have to forget it happened when The Flash races into theaters on November 4, 2022.
