Over two months ago, HBO Max hosted the long-awaited debut for Zack Snyder's Justice League, which allowed the director to show his vision for what the movie should have been in 2017. Due to this cut being just over four hours long, there are dozens of topics that have served as conversation starters over the last few weeks, especially with Snyder's openness to talk about it.
Many of these chats have revealed some plot points and details that Snyder fought about with Warner Bros. that didn't make it into the theatrical cut, partially leading to the four-hour run time. One example of this is his new version of the Green Lantern for which he shot footage in his driveway, along with the idea of this Lantern and the Martian Manhunter having screen time together.
The latest round of chats surrounding the Snyder Cut took a look into a scene that Warner Bros. really didn't want in the original blockbuster.
SPEED FORCE IN THE SNYDER CUT
Grace Randolph's Beyond the Trailer YouTube channel released an interview with Randolph and Snyder Cut VFX Supervisor John DJ Des Jardin about the Flash's Speed Force scene in Zack Snyder's Justice League.
Des Jardin spoke about the team's fight with the studio over the scene, saying that "they just didn't get it" when it initially was developed for 2017's Justice League. It was filmed during initial production in 2016, but the supervisor revealed that it was "one of the first things they threw out after they pulled Zack off the movie:"
"It’s funny, because that was always in the story. We shot that way back in 2016. It was something that, I don’t know what it was, the mood of the studio at the time, they just didn’t get it, to be honest. They were just like ‘I don’t understand this,’ and maybe it was the previous nature of it or the post-vis nature or whatever, but it was one of the first things they threw out after they pulled Zack off the movie, sadly. I’m really, really happy with the work that Bryan did on it because Bryan hadn’t had a chance to touch that scene before, so this was all brand-new to him. I had lived with it for years, and the spec for it never changed. And I had some early post-vis versions of it that I could show him. I really loved the breath and depth and scope that he gave those big ideas that are in that imagery."
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
The stories of Zack Snyder's fights with Warner Bros. are becoming the stuff of infamy, especially taking into account how much the studio made him remove to hit its mandated two-hour time limit.
The Speed Force scene was Barry Allen's major hero moment in the Snyder Cut, in which he ran so fast that he reversed time and saved the rest of the Justice League from their doom. As it turns out, this scene didn't sit the right way with the studio behind the DCEU, which left it completely omitted from the final battle of director Joss Whedon's final product.
Upon its debut in the Snyder Cut, the Speed Force scene has earned mixed reviews, but it served to give Barry Allen more depth as he continued his hero's journey. With Snyder now likely having finished his work with the DCEU, this moment now has the chance to live on as fans continue to dissect his pet project.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is available to stream on HBO Max.
