Justice League: Everything Blocking The Release of Snyder's Cut

Fans of Zack Snyder's work in the DCEU have been campaigning for months to "release the Snyder Cut," of Justice League and there's a fair amount of evidence to suggest the cut exists in a mostly complete form, but distribution could prove to be a complicated issue.

There's been a lot of debate since Justice League's release about whether or not the Snyder Cut is even real, but we broke down back in January that there's a paper trail proving Snyder completed all of principal photography and a good portion post-production, and since then Snyder himself has teased additional work, Justice League's storyboard artist, DC animation director, and frequent Snyder collaborator, Jay Oliva, has come out to say it exists, and new rumors say Snyder continued work on it on his own time.

Even so, many official sources continue to claim the cut doesn't exist and cast doubt on the prospect of it ever seeing the light of day. If it's mostly done, what's to stop Snyder from releasing it himself? Would Warner Bros. release it if it was completed like they did with the Batman v Superman: Ultimate Edition? There are a number of roadblocks preventing the Snyder Cut from being released, but it is a possibility eventually.

This Page: The Snyder Cut Isn't a Normal Director's Cut
Page 2: Complicated Distribution Rights and Changed Continuity
Page 3: How Could The Snyder Cut Be Released?

The Snyder Cut Isn't a Normal Director's Cut

The idea of a "director's cut" isn't new. Every movie has some form of director's cut assembled during production, and plenty of movies get an eventual director's cut release, to mixed reception. Snyder, particularly, is known for his director's cuts, with Sucker Punch, Watchmen, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice directors cuts (or "Ultimate Cuts") all seeing a significant improvement over the theatrical releases.

With all of these cuts, as with most director's cuts, they were completed ahead of the theatrical release but trimmed by studio mandate to lower the rating, fit a shorter runtime, or for other studio concerns. This means they were shot, edited, and had completed effects before the theatrical release, making it easy to include as an option (or an upsell) with the initial home media rollout, if not shortly after.

Justice League is a little different. First, there were some significant deviations to the writing after the negative reception to BvS in order to lighten the tone, then there were additional struggles between Oscar Winner Chris Terrio, and DC President Geoff Johns, before Snyder was eventually forced off the project altogether. He had finished 100% of principal photography and part of post-production, including a fair amount of VFX work, but he wasn't the director on hand for reshoots or the final stages of principal photography.

As a result, it's doubtful a pure cut of Justice League matching Snyder's original vision could be assembled, although he does have most of the pieces he needs to assemble a complete film, so the comparison to the Donner Cut of Superman II or the Blade Runner: The Final Cut might be apter than Snyder's other directors cuts.

There was still considerable work to do, and it is achievable, but it won't necessarily release in the near future. The Donner Cut and Blade Runner Final Cut both took decades, though the prevalence of information about and demand for the Snyder Cut may very well lead to a much shorter wait time.

Page 2 of 3: Complicated Distribution Rights and Changed Continuity

Warner Bros. Owns The Distribution Rights

Assuming the Snyder Cut is completed in and in a releasable condition, it doesn't really matter unless Warner Bros. wants to give the green light and finance the distribution for it. As the owner of both the intellectual property and the distribution rights, it's the studio's call as to whether or not they want to release it. Snyder and his company, Cruel and Unusual Films, are producers and may have some rights to access or modify the footage, but not to make it available for public consumption.

So, Snyder could, as has been rumored, finish his cut of Justice League on his own, and simply screen it for friends, family, and the cast (he's chronicled the building of a new personal theater on the social network Vero, fueling such rumors), but the only way for it to show in a public theater, get sold on DVD/Blu-ray/digital, or land on a streaming platform is for Warner Bros. to give the OK. Since the company is currently trying to move past the disappointment of Justice League to focus on to the future with Aquaman, Shazam, and Wonder Woman 1984, it's not likely shining a spotlight back on Justice League ranks high on their priorities, especially since Zack Snyder's other two DCEU installments were divisive with general audiences anyway.

The Snyder Cut Changes Are Significant Enough to Alter Continuity

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Thanks to a number of significant changes to the story, Justice League's theatrical cut and the Snyder Cut don't fit in the same continuity. It wasn't just minor tweaks here and there, Superman was almost entirely reshot, the Knightmare subplot was removed, sequel set-up for Darkseid was removed, Iris West was cut, and more. And those are just the known changes. There's plenty of scenes from trailers that didn't make it into the final movie, and Snyder himself has teased even more moments that have absolutely no context in the story we know from the theatrical version.

The situation is totally different with Batman v Superman and the Ultimate Edition. Since the changes there were mostly for the sake of runtime, and only impact the internal plot structure of BvS, it doesn't hurt the larger shared universe continuity. The movie still set up Justice League either way. Justice League, however, barely sets up a totally different sequel than the Snyder Cut. Snyder's Justice League 2 would have been something similar to Grant Morrison's Final Crisis comics, with Darkseid invading Earth with the anti-life equation, but the theatrical cut removed all that set-up, instead using the post-credits scene of Lex Luthor and Deathstroke to add some reshoot dialogue teasing the Legion of Doom.

That doesn't mean the Snyder Cut isn't worth watching or that fans wouldn't appreciate what it was doing, but the studio has no interest in putting money and effort behind a project that only relates to its previous DCEU roadmap.

Page 3 of 3: How Could The Snyder Cut Be Released?

Could The Snyder Cut Just "Leak?"

One possibility some fans have discussed is whether or not the cut could just magically appear on the internet one day, leaked by Snyder or someone else that worked on the film. Obviously, there's always a chance something like that could happen, but Snyder himself isn't likely to do so. Not only would it be a low road for the director (for whom who cast and crew have only had extraordinary praise), but it would basically amount to career suicide and even have potential criminal charges associated.

Since Synder isn't the copyright holder, releasing the cut would be considered a form of piracy, which could lead to severe fines and even jail time. The latter might be a more extreme case, but it's doubtful the release of the cut is so valuable that he'd risk jail time for it. He may have put years of his life into DC and Justice League, and seeing it released would undoubtedly be a cathartic experience, but it's not worth the legal and career repercussions.

The alternative is that someone other than Snyder leaks it anonymously, but if the cut wasn't complete when Snyder officially left production, and the work to complete it was conducted on his own, it's doubtful many people even have access, and if they do it'd be too easy to narrow down the culprit.

The Most Likely Case For the Snyder Cut

Not to make everything seem like doom and gloom for those who want to see the Snyder Cut. Snyder clearly has an interest in seeing it released, and will presumably pursue all avenues to find a way to get it out there, presuming it's completed. That means any solution would need to offer some kind of benefit to Warner Bros. while incurring minimal expense. That solution just might be streaming.

There are still a number of hurdles to overcome to get to that point, but a release on the DC Universe streaming service might be the best win-win-win scenario for Warner Bros., Zack Snyder, and fans. Warner Bros. is going to want to lure audiences into its streaming service with exclusive content, and the number of fans regularly calling for a Snyder Cut are way more in-line with numbers that would influence a TV show, not a blockbuster movie release. The movie could be properly contextualized there as an "alternate" cut to avoid audience confusion, and ideally, fans would stop causing trouble for Warner Bros. and AT&T on social media.

The whole Snyder Cut really is new and unfamiliar territory. This sort of situation has happened before, but never in such a high profile way in a larger continuity in the age of social media. People knew about Blade Runner and the Superman 2 production woes, but there was no mobilized, passionate outcry for director's cuts of those movies due to the slower spread of information and lack of fan mobilization like we have now with social media. It may seem like a long shot for the cut to get released at all, but by all accounts, it could pretty easily be released of Warner Bros. simply agreed to distribute it.

MORE: The DCEU's Biggest Mistake Was Not Letting Zack Snyder Finish His Vision