Four Years Later, the “Snyder Cut’ of Justice League is finally being released on HBO Max

It only took, what, four years? but Zack Snyder’s Justice League (aka “The Snyder Cut”) will hit HBO Max on March 18th, the director announced on Twitter today.

Why is there a “Snyder Cut” of Justice League? Didn’t that movie come out in 2017, showcasing Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and the members of DC Comics’ core team? If you are casual fans of comic-book movies, you might be wondering this exact thing as you hear buzz around a version of Justice League that’s coming to HBO Max in March. Is it the same movie, just longer? What movies in the DC Extended Universe does it connect to, if any? Why did Zack Snyder leave Justice League in the first place, leading to the existence of a Snyder Cut of the movie?

There has been so much buzz about Snyder’s abrupt departure from the project in the middle of filming, that fans demanded to know why, and there’s even been a book coming out by film journalist Sean O’Connell (coincidentally getting its release on March 1st – just in time for the director’s cut) that goes into detail about all the ins and outs of the drama both behind, and in front of, the camera.

O’Connell writes:

The story of the Release the Snyder Cut movement is unlike anything I have ever seen in my 20+ years as a film journalist. It’s rare that you see a filmmaker replaced on a blockbuster in the middle of post-production, particularly on as highly of an anticipated film as Warner Bros.’ Justice League was… and continues to be. On March 1, a book that I wrote called “Release the Snyder Cut” will drop in stores and online from Applause Books. (Preorder a copy of the book right here.) The book explains in detail what happened to Zack Snyder behind the scenes on Justice League back in 2017, while also following the three-year effort spent by Snyder’s most-dedicated fans to get Warner Bros. to finally release his original cut of the doomed Justice League movie. What you saw in theaters in 2017 was NOT the version Snyder intended to show. That cut is coming to HBO Max soon, and the book reveals how that happened.

One of the big reveals of the book is that the reason that Zack Snyder gave for leaving Justice League had to do with a tragedy in the Snyder family. Zack’s daughter Autumn died by suicide, and the director felt like he had to walk away from the production to be at home with his family. In response, the director’s fans, along with campaigning for the release of the director’s cut, raised over half a million dollars for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Warner Bros. previously announced in May that the long-rumored extended cut was getting an official release but as an exclusive on WarnerMedia’s new streaming service, HBO Max. With a firm release date for Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally set, the film is launching at a competitive time for superhero media as it will release one day before the debut of Marvel Studios’ newest miniseries, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which will stream exclusively on Disney Plus.

And, Zack Snyder’s Justice League isn’t the only new film arriving on HBO Max this year. In December, Warner Bros. announced that every single one of its films in 2021 would release simultaneously on HBO Max the same day they premiered in movie theaters. AT&T now credits the decision for helping boost HBO Max subscriber numbers in its latest earnings report.

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