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Zack Snyder's Justice League

Zack Snyder's Justice League: Interview with Zack & Deborah Snyder

We caught up with the director behind the massive four-hour DC flick.

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Millions and millions of hardcore DC & Snyder-fans came together last year to more or less force the hand of Warner Bros. to let Zack Snyder finish his original vision of what a four-hour long action-epic about Justice League could and perhaps even should be. Now, it is here, and Gamereactor's Petter Hegevall spent an evening with Zack and Deborah Snyder to talk about the process and the future.

Gamereactor: What do you have to say about the role of the fans in Snyder Cut and how all this became possible, against all odds?

Zach: Absolutely fantastic, the film has - as you know - no real reason to exist, but it is of course absolutely fantastic that we are here, now. This film would not have been released in this condition as it is now without the love of the fans. I do not think I can say this enough times, that the fans have made this possible and it is of course absolutely fantastic. Deborah and I are of course immensely grateful that the fans also helped to create awareness about mental illness and suicide prevention with The Snyder Cut.

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Gamereactor: Given how the movie ends, are there plans for more, does Warner want to do more or is this the end of the Snyderverse?

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Zach: As for the story, I think everyone knows we had plans to do more, absolutely. No secret there. If nothing else, it will be clear at the end of this film. But yes, on the other hand, Warner Brothers has not expressed any interest in wanting to continue working together and Walter Hamada has on several occasions made it clear that the 2017 version of Justice League is the official "canon" while my version is just a small, branch. Or yeah, it's a pretty huge branch if you have watched the movie but still, that's how they want to move forward and given that I've never seen or will see that movie, I have little or no idea what it means.

Deborah: It has also been such a long journey to get here, that now after all these years we just want to pause, catch our breath and feel satisfied and happy with what we have achieved with this film.

Gamereactor: If you could make a movie out of a game, or a game series, which one would you choose?

Zach: I think I should choose Halo. That game series is close to my heart and it is such an enormously successful and extensive franchise that has not yet been made into a proper movie, or movies. There is so much potential there and the mythology is already flushed out and so heavily detailed. There are lots of stories in that world that could make really good movies, I think. Gears of War is another game series that I would love to film.

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Zack Snyder's Justice LeagueZack Snyder's Justice League

Gamereactor: Even if there is now no continuation of your vision of what the DC universe can and perhaps should be, on film, could you imagine writing a comic book as a continuation, instead? The combination of you and Jim Lee would be something we comic book geeks could murder for.

Zach: Jim Lee and I talked about this, we had a plan. In a whole series of comic books containing my story, here. I also had plans for a comic-run about the Joker vs Robin and everything that happened, there. Between them. We were both super-onboard but DC has postponed that project to the future due to budget reasons, I think.

Gamereactor: After that, could you imagine going to another comic book, making a movie of something from maybe Marvel, Dark Horse or Top Cow?

Zach: I actually do not know. I am currently working on a whole pile of ideas and there is an idea to create our own universe, our own IP so that we completely avoid committees and big studios. I love working in the comic book genre though, as you know. It was 14 years since I did Watchmen and 300 before that, so sure.

Deborah: We've also had a lot of fun now that we're back to the zombie genre, and while we're rolling out Snyder Cut, we're completing Army of the Dead for Netflix and it has been a really fun project.

Gamereactor: The movie that is now being released, is it exactly the movie you had in mind in 2017, or have you changed things now?

Zach: No, this is exactly the same version that I quickly cut together in January 2017, just without the effect scenes and the right music. It was after this a little over four years ago that I would start the work of shortening my initial cut, when we decided to leave the project. Despite this, I saved everything at home and continued to cut and refine it, because I saw that I could learn something from the process. During all this time, I liked the four-hour version by far the best and it quickly became clear that it would be much harder to cut Justice League to a length that Warner wanted than I had first thought. I think this long version, my original vision, works so well because we put it together without notes, requirements or rules from the studio, but just put together the pieces we filmed to have some kind of framework.

Zack Snyder's Justice League
Zack Snyder's Justice LeagueZack Snyder's Justice LeagueZack Snyder's Justice League

Thanks Zack and Deborah Snyder for chatting with us. For more of Zack Snyder's Justice League, be sure to check out our review here.

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