Warner Bros. Originally Wanted to Release Zack Snyder's JUSTICE LEAGUE in Its Raw Footage Unfinished Form

When Warner Bros. actually started to consider releasing Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League, they originally wanted to release it in its raw footage form. No special effects, no real clean-up, nothing. They just wanted him to release an edited black and white version of the raw footage he had, and that’s it. In fact, that’s how they initially approached Snyder about it, but the filmmaker was like, “no way!”

During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Snyder shared the story, saying:

“That’s a no, that’s a hard no. And they’re like, ‘But why? You can just put up the rough cut.’ I go, ‘Here’s why. Three reasons: One, you get the internet off your back, which is probably your main reason for wanting to do this. Two, you get to feel vindicated for making things right, I guess, on some level. And then three, you get a shitty version of the movie that you can point at and go, ‘See? It’s not that good anyway. So maybe I was right.’ I was like, No chance. I would rather just have the Snyder cut be a mythical unicorn for all time.’”

In the end, luckily Snyder was able to sell WB on his vision for the film, and they ended up giving Snyder a $70 million budget to polish his film up and complete it exactly the way he wanted. One of the ways he helped make that happen and to get the creative freedom he was looking for, he had to forgo his pay.

Letting Snyder finish his film so that it could be released on HBO Max was smart move. While I think fans would have been happy to see a raw footage cut of Snyder’s Justice League, the fact that a completely finished version of the film is being released is a lot better.