The story of the 2017 JUSTICE LEAGUE movie is kind of crazy, as the film was originally helmed by Zack Snyder, but due to a family tragedy he walked away before it was finished, and Joss Whedon stepped in to finish it. But instead of just finishing it, Whedon decided to re-write and reshoot most of the film, meaning what was shown in theaters really wasn’t Snyder’s vision – rumors at the time said things like Snyder’s rough cut was deemed “unwatchable” by WB executives. As for Whedon’s version, it wasn’t received terribly well, especially by fans, leading to a fan petition demanding Warner Bros. “release the Snyder Cut”, meaning they wanted to see Snyder’s version of the film before it was re-shot. And that fan campaign was very persistent, dominating social media and refusing to let up. Many folks, myself included, thought it got pretty silly at times, as the idea of WB spending money on a film that actually lost money in theaters, just so fans could see a different version of it… well, it just seemed very unrealistic. But somehow, some way, it’s happening, and DC/WB is releasing it exclusively on HBOmax next month.
I’m still not sure how this is being pulled off, as I imagine it has to be costing several million dollars to make this happen, including re-negotiated contracts with all the main actors, new costs to finish extensive special effects, and major video and sound editing… but Zack Snyder has money, and connections, so it’s possible he’s getting a lot of that done on the cheap… somehow. The original movie featured “Steppenwolf” as the villain, voiced by Ciarán Hinds, who was sent to do battle by Darkseid (if you read the comics, you know who that is). This version puts Darkseid more front and center as the bad guy. The superhero team brought together to fight this threat includes Batman (Ben Affleck), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and the Flash (Ezra Miller). The film also deals with the return of Superman (Henry Cavill), who reunites with Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane), and will evidently be sporting the “black” Superman suit made famous by the comics. Also, in this new trailer, we see a cameo from Jared Leto as The Joker (the version we saw in SUICIDE SQUAD), though it looks like it might just be part of Bruce Wayne’s nightmare sequence. Man, I hope it’s good, as this is a serious time and financial investment for a film we’ve kind of already seen, even if this version promises to be significantly different. Check out the new trailer below and tell us your thoughts in the comments.