Zack Snyder on Joss Whedon’s cut of ‘Justice League’: Expunging it from DCEU library sounds cool

It’s a film whose conflagrating behind-the-scenes development and backstories are as compelling as watching the world catch fire after the death of Earth’s mightiest hero, Superman.

We’re talking about “Justice League” and the tabloid-fodder, fandom-fueling multiverse of speculations that followed director Zack Snyder’s shocking withdrawal from postproduction work on the hugely anticipated film in 2017.

To put this “changing of the guards” in perspective, here’s what happened in a nutshell: Zack’s unexpected departure took place two months after his 20-year-old adopted daughter Autumn took her own life, barely six months before “Justice League” was officially released in November that year.

Zack’s exit prompted the studio to hire controversial director Joss Whedon (“The Avengers,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) to complete the film—but not before extensive reshoots, reportedly worth $25 million, that would constitute about 20 percent of Joss’ version of the two-hour actioner.

In the film that takes place two years after Superman’s selfless act (in 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”), the Dark Knight (Ben Affleck) teams up with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to get Aquaman (Jason Momoa), The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) to help them stop Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) and his fear-sniffing Parademons from turning the world into his home planet’s likeness. But can they beat the odds in the absence of their once-invincible Kryptonian ally?

Yes, geeks, nerds and fanboys. Last week, we sat down to watch the four-hour, seven-part movie, appropriately called “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”—a film, to be streamed exclusively on HBO Go beginning Thursday, that veers off-course from Joss Whedon’ cut by reverentially reintroducing the Justice League members’ individual stories and turning the 2017 tale on its head with a darker, grittier final hour.

More than that, it has thrilling cameos from other superheroes and villains, including a 30-minute epilogue that goes way beyond Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) “breaking bread” with Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello).

For this Philippine exclusive, we spoke with director Zack Snyder and his wife Deborah, producer of such high-profile titles as “300,” “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman,” “Wonder Woman,” “Aquaman,” “The Watchmen,” “Suicide Squad” and Zack’s upcoming zombie flick “Army of the Dead,” about Zack’s “Justice League” redo and the three-day reshoots last December.

Does the couple want Joss’ version erased from the DCEU (DC Extended Universe) library?

“That’s not up to us,” Deborah quipped when asked about what would happen to the 2017 film now that they’re about to release Zack’s director’s cut.

Were there discussions to expunge Joss’ cut from DC’s library? Or will it be allowed to “coexist” with the movie’s four-hour redo?

“I like your way of thinking,” the handsome 55-year-old director admitted. “Expunging it from the record—that sounds cool. Like, if there was some sort of virus you could push with a button, to find it all and delete it, that would be cool. But I don’t see that happening, so that’s fine.”

Has his exit in 2017 changed, reshaped and expanded his vision for the 2021 director’s cut, which took about seven months to execute and complete?

“This is a cut that I finished right away—like, right when we got back,” Zack disclosed. “So, it’s the freshest. Yeah, there were concessions made to the studio here and there, but the production hasn’t been beaten down by the [usual] process of shooting.

“If you look carefully at the movie, there are Easter eggs that actually describe my emotional state while shooting this—like the headline of the newspaper that gets thrown down at Lois Lane’s (Amy Adams) feet … I’m not going to say what it says (laughs). But if you read and Google that, you’ll find out where I was in the process.

“That said, I love these actors. So I put my head down and soldiered on as best I could. I can’t help it if I’m a slightly subversive character. I don’t mean to be a provocateur, but I tend to just say yes, then do whatever the f*ck I want.

“Sorry, I probably shouldn’t swear (laughs). And I hope that, in the end, I will convince you that my idea was right, to begin with, that you should have just let me do it my way. That’s gotten me in trouble from the start, I admit, but in the end, look, we’re here—and that’s the good bit!”

Our Q&A with Zack and Deborah:

After releasing another version of your film, the studio basically gave you your creative autonomy back—which has never happened before. What does this mean in terms of the relationship between the industry and the fandom, as well as the importance of streaming platforms in the biz?

Zack (Z): It’s such a unique case, so yes, I think it will have some effect. But if you do the detective work on everything that went into it, the implications might be smaller going forward. I don’t know if this would result in a new world where fans decide what movies get made.

I’m not saying it’s not the case, but I don’t know what the endgame is here, except that I do think that the streaming services and having a platform like HBO Max really does give an option for a release scenario that would have otherwise been impossible to imagine.

Deborah (D): We all love going to a theater to watch movies, but the streaming services are allowing people to make bolder choices. I mean, we wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for a streaming service. And there’s much more content. So, I think they can complement each other and coexist.

Fandom was a contributing factor to your cut getting released but, at the same time, some people are saying that fandom is getting too toxic and more influential than they should be. Your take on this?

D: Whether you’re a blogger or a critic, there’s a way of disagreeing about something but doing it in a nice way. I don’t think attacking someone is appropriate. By any way, that isn’t something you would say to someone’s face if not for the cloak of anonymity online.

As far as the Snyder Cut movement is concerned, there might have been a small group that have been toxic, but the majority of fans have done something amazing. Like, not only did they get a studio to allow this movie to be made, they’ve also generated so much awareness for mental health and suicide prevention and raised over half a million dollars so far for AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention).

Z: They’re going for a million—and that’s something really positive.

You shot one scene last year. What was the experience of shooting during the pandemic and why the extra sequence?

Z: We were like guinea pigs. As to the importance of the additional scene, particularly for my version of the DCEU, it’s a world where Batman and Joker exist—and yet, they’ve never met. It seemed cathartic to have those guys, who define each other in such giant ways, come into conflict.

D: Shooting during the pandemic was challenging because, at the time, the studios were just starting to figure it out what the safety requirements would be. It was also difficult to pull off because the actors were in different places, so we didn’t necessarily have everyone together at the same time for the three-day shoot.

Ezra was in England doing the “Fantastic Beasts” sequel, so we had the crew shoot him over there, while Zach directed over Zoom—and that was really interesting (laughs)!

We couldn’t align Ben Affleck and Jared Leto’s (Joker) schedules, but we couldn’t move the shoot any further because we had an enormous amount of visual effects to deliver for that sequence. We had a deadline.

We were supposed to deliver everything before Christmas and managed to pushed that till the end of January. It was pretty challenging but super fun at the same time. We hadn’t seen everybody in a long time, and it was nice to see them in their costumes again.

Could you share what your thoughts are about the rating system on Rotten Tomatoes, where “Batman v Superman” only got a 28-percent approval rating, and someone like Zack could get “punished” for a grand vision?

D: I think some people didn’t like their heroes deconstructed. They didn’t realize that we were on our way to building them up. It wouldn’t be very interesting to see them in all their glory from the start, because where do you go from there?

It’s hard when people have preconceived notions about what the film should be: Should it be funnier? Is it too dark? That to me was hard to read. Are you just disappointed that it’s not the film you thought it was going to be?

There’s so much riding on these big films, as opposed to being able to take chances and do things differently. But everything Zach does in life is take chances—like the casting of Jason Momoa as Aquaman and even Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Now, you can’t imagine anyone else being Wonder Woman or Aquaman but, at the time, those casting decisions were really “unconventional” choices.

Then, there’s Superman—a character that was hard for me to grapple with, because he’s just so perfect. So, it’s nice to see him struggling with his identity and figuring out who he is.