DC FanDome has revealed much of what fans can look forward to: Dwayne Johnson-starrer Black Adam , Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight and Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman 1984 , along with DC's Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad video games. But what the world had long been waiting for was Zack Snyder’s Justice League: The Snyder Cut .
The official teaser trailer, launched by HBO Max on August 23, has more than 60 lakh views and counting, played against Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ (reminiscent of 2009’s Watchmen ). We still do see Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) who was the main antagonist in the 2017 film but sporting a different character design. We do wonder if that may be flipped with the onset of supervillains Darkseid (Ray Porter) who is the tyrannical ruler of Apokolips, and DeSaad (Peter Guinness), Darkseid’s sadistic chief torturer. In January, Snyder added that The Snyder Cut will see Ryan Choi, aka Atom .
- DC FanDome 2020 is a virtual convention, sharing details on everything from film and television to comic books to gaming, all of which to entertain the discerning DC fan. The first part of DC FanDome took place on August 22, with the second part coming on September 12.
Notably, Victor Stone aka Cyborg (Ray Fisher) will get more of a spotlight in The Snyder Cut . We see glimpses of Fisher’s pre-superhero life as an American football player as well as his relationship with his father and ‘creator’ Silas Stone (Joe Morton). Unfortunately, in the 2017 film, Cyborg barely got any screen time. Plus, we see more of Barry Allen aka The Flash (Ezra Miller) and a moment of what may be the development of his romance with Iris West (Kiersey Clemons). And, as confirmed by Snyder earlier, Superman’s black suit will make an appearance.
Origins of a movement
The DC Extended Universe film Justice League came out in 2017, but original director Zack Snyder stepped down during editing when his daughter Autumn passed away. Director Joss Whedon took over the project and when the film was released, many fans were less than thrilled with the revised film, despite opening weekend earnings of US$150 million. Snyder has confirmed that the 2017 film comprised just a quarter of his original contribution.
As a result, the last three years saw aggressive community-driven campaigning to bring to theatres and/or screens Snyder’s vision of Justice League . There were also widespread speculations that this film was much darker, and much longer at a four-hour running time, which Snyder has admitted that he knew Warner Bros would not favour.
The international movement grew so quickly and at such scale, that actors Ben Affleck, Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot joined the movement which became a hashtagged movement #ReleaseTheSnyderCut.
The campaign took on a more aggressive momentum, when in May 2020, during a Vero Man of Steel watch party with Henry Cavill, Snyder was providing live commentary for the virtual screening. When a fan slyly asked if the Snyder Cut would be released, the director, following some egging on by Cavill, surprised everyone by saying there is indeed a Snyder Cut.
Very quickly, official news of Justice League: Snyder Cut releasing on HBO Max in 2021 followed. It will appear on HBO Max in four hour-long parts, but will also be available to watch as a complete movie once all four parts had been released. Snyder also said DC was working on a distribution plan for regions (India included) where HBO Max is not available.
