Zack Snyder's Justice League: How HBO Max Is Making the 4-Hour Movie Easier To Watch

By Richard Nebens Updated:
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The DC Extended Universe may not have any canon releases until the summer of 2021, but the hype is building up to its non-canon release with the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Set to premiere on March 18, director Zack Snyder has been ramping up his promotional tour for the film over the last few weeks, particularly with the likely final full trailer that just debuted for Valentine’s Day weekend.

This new teaser helped to bring even more anticipation for the movie, especially with Jared Leto’s Joker being confirmed to appear in the promo's final seconds. He is one of numerous additions to this movie, which will have a whopping four hours of screen time in which to tell this new epic story.

In terms of how that four hours will be broken up, one of the film’s producers just gave her own input on the matter.

HBO MAX BREAKING UP SNYDER CUT

In a recent interview with the LightCast PodcastJustice League producer Deborah Snyder gave some insight on how fans can most easily sit through the four-hour Snyder Cut of the DC team-up movie.

The wife of the film's director revealed that HBO Max will be including "little indentations" for each part of the film, all of which have their own title. Each of these indentations will serve as markers for where fans "can go to on each of the chapter headings" and help break up the viewing experience into something more manageable.

"I’ll give you a tip about viewing it. It’s gonna be, and I know a lot of fans are gonna want to watch it straight through. But it also has parts. And what HBO Max is able to do is, there’s gonna be a timeline…there’s gonna be little indentations. Each part has a title, and it’s kind of thematic.

Deborah Snyder went on to explain that each of these indentations will serve as markers for where fans "can go to on each of the chapter headings" and help break up the viewing experience into something more manageable.

"Me, I’ve sat through a few hours a bunch of times, but I might want to watch just a couple of the parts at a time. I can just very easily…I know that the service usually stops and you can pick up where you left off. But sometimes, if Zack and I are watching something and I fall asleep, he watches and I go “Where did I leave off? I don’t really know if I want to go back and watch it. They’ve made it really easy for you. There’s a little indentation in the timeline that you can go to on each of the chapter headings. So I think that’s really cool, because we wanted to make sure that if you didn’t want to sit through the whole thing, you could go and watch however you wanted to view it and not get lost. When it’s four hours, that’s a lot to have to figure out where you lost your place."

The full interview can be seen here:

 

FOUR-HOUR MOVIE? NO PROBLEM

Fans have wondered for months how much different the Snyder Cut of Justice League would be from the original 2017 adventure, especially with reports that it would be twice as long as it's canon counterpart. With so much more information and story to take in, it makes plenty of sense that HBO Max would use this method to help fans digest everything that Zack Snyder is bringing with this adventure.

The movie has been said to be separated into six different "chapters," although with so much extra story, there is no way to tell exactly how that will be divided. Thankfully, these markers in the timeline should help solve that problem fairly effectively for those who don't want to sit through four straight hours of movie.

Knowing Zack Snyder's propensity to tease what's coming, fans should keep an ear out for specifics on these indentations over the next few weeks. The full story won't be told until the movie debuts, but this method of breaking the movie into pieces should help build even more hype for its release.

The Snyder Cut of Justice League will debut on HBO Max on March 18, 2021.

- About The Author: Richard Nebens
Richard Nebens joined The Direct in March 2020, now serving as the site's Senior Writer and also working as an assistant editor and content creator. He started his journalism career as a hobby in 2019 and is passionate about sharing news and stories from the entertainment industry, especially comic book movies, comedy, and sci-fi. Richard looks to expand his knowledge about movies and TV every day, and he is eager to stay locked into the latest releases and breaking news at every opportunity.