Zack Snyder could have easily used the "Snyder Cut" of Justice League to bring his vision for the DC Extended Universe to a close, but instead threw in a bunch of teases (most of which were added during those reshoots) that helped spawn the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse movement.
While Zack Snyder's Justice League was a success on HBO Max - and even scored mostly positive reviews from critics - it didn't do the sort of numbers that will have WarnerMedia execs chomping at the bit to make two costly sequels. We've even heard that Warner Bros. now plans to move on from the filmmaker's vision, something Snyder himself acknowledged in an interview with Jake's Takes.
"Warner Bros. has been aggressively anti-Snyder if you will. What can I say? Clearly, they're not interested in my take," the Army of the Dead helmer explained. "But I would also say that they certainly weren't interested in - I would have said originally - in my take on Justice League. They certainly made decisions about that."
"I love the characters, and I love the worlds, and I think it's an amazing place to make a movie. It's glorious IP. So there's that. I don't know what could be done as you go forward other than I think the fan movement is so strong, and the fan community, [their] intention is so pure, and I really have this huge respect for it. I would hope that cooler heads would prevail with [the studio] and they would see that there's this massive fandom that wants more of that."
Snyder finished by asking, "Who knows what they'll do?"
Well, we do know what the studio has planned, and that's moving forward with a slate of movies that have little in common with the SnyderVerse. The Flash is expected to serve as a reboot for the DCEU, though we'd be lying to say we're not a little disappointed that they won't at least consider having the director finish his story in the form of a comic book or animated feature.
That might happen down the line, of course, but for now, there's no movement on any Justice League sequels despite some passionate campaigning online from fans.
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Justice League we're shocked Snyder didn't shoot!
5. Bruce...Bought The Farm?
This scene works well enough, but the sort of dumb humor that encompasses this scene feels 100% Whedon.
So, in the wake of her son's death, Martha Kent lost the farm, right? Well, Bruce never bothered to step in and help her in the wake of Superman's death (weird when he bonded with the Man of Steel over her name and saved Martha's life in Batman v Superman), and instead waited until Clark was resurrected.
It's pretty illogical, as is Bruce's decision to buy the bank rather than, you know, the farm. Not a lot of thought was put into this, and it's a scene that boiled down to a pretty dumb gag.
That feels 100% Whedon, hence why we're shocked it was a scene Snyder shot.
4. "That's Rude"
It seems Snyder took note of the scenes fans didn't like and quietly removed them from his cut of Justice League. Whedon was blamed for that goofy line about Aquaman talking to fish, but it was Snyder who shot it (it's easy to forget that it in the first trailer for the film that was released during Comic-Con).
Jim Gordon actually has a smaller role in the Snyder Cut, but the second of the two scenes he is in isn't great.
Just like in 2017, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Cyborg all somehow mysteriously vanish after meeting with the Commissioner...because the Dark Knight told them to before he got there?
He didn't tell the Fastest Man Alive because "LOL, Barry is fast, but not fast enough to disappear with the rest of them!" It's a stupid moment, but one we have to blame Snyder for.
3. Upskirt Wonder Woman Shot
There are a lot of gratuitous shots of Wonder Woman in Joss Whedon's Justice League, including one we know Gal Gadot refused to film (when the Flash lands face first on her chest).
However, we are surprised that one of the most talked-about moments is something Snyder can be credited with. Yes, this infamous upskirt shot of Diana Prince is present in the Snyder Cut, and a scene we now know the filmmaker was responsible for long before Whedon boarded the project.
Look, there's nothing too revealing or controversial here, but...well, that's one way to shoot Wonder Woman!
We'd have placed money on Whedon adding this scene to a sequence that, overall, was vastly better in the Snyder Cut, but it thankfully doesn't overshadow the badassery that follows.
2. The Hot Dogs
Whedon has a pretty weird sense of humor, and while it worked more often than not in the MCU, it proved to be a bad fit for Justice League.
With that in mind, it's a legit shocker that the director can't be blamed for the sheer level of stupidy that ensues when Barry Allen interviews for a job to be a dog walker. The slow-motion might be 100% Zack, but the weird hot dog stuff feels like something Joss might have added in an effort to add some levity to this dramatic rescue sequence.
Nope.
We don't know if this was all studio mandated, but the whole hot dog thing is really daft and not exactly a quality moment in Snyder's cut of the DC Comics film.
1. "Kal-El, No!"
Recently, reports of what happened on the set of Justice League in 2017 surfaced and we learned that Whedon clashed with Gal Gadot on a number of occasions.
He locked Gadot's stuntwoman in her dressing room, and threatened to make her look bad in the film. That surely explains the goofy line delivery of "Kal-El, no!" right? Wrong. This was all Whedon and all Gadot back when they were shooting the film the first time around.
It's a cringe-worthy moment in this otherwise badass fight scene, and one we've been trying to wrap our heads around for the past four years or so. Something clearly didn't work this day on set, and there's sadly no blaming Whedon for what went wrong with this moment.
Zack? You should have left this one on the cutting room floor.