Remember Justice League?
What was originally supposed to be a cinematic event for the DC Extended Universe that matched the hype and anticipation levels of The Avengers never fully reached the, ahem, marvel of its competitor. The team-up movie between Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg was released in the fall of 2017, losing an estimated $60 million and failing to break even on its production budget of $300 million.
In the two years since its release, there have been numerous attempts to Monday Morning Quarterback the situation, with a number of potential different solutions. The most accurate of these is that Warner Bros. simply tried to do too much, too soon. While Marvel and Kevin Feige took their time—albeit with a few stumbles along the way—to build Avengers into something meaningful for its audience, Warner Bros. didn’t have the same luxury, as they had to try and play catchup to an already dominant force. In short, Justice League was reactionary, just like Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was before it; each movie tried to respond to the criticisms of the film prior, spectacularly missing the point each time. The other main point is the film’s rocky production. For those unaware, director Zack Snyder was initially at the helm of the film, before dropping out due to a family tragedy; Warner Bros. then enlisted Avengers director Joss Whedon to come in and rework the script through a series of reshoots that involved a horribly removed mustache among other things.
After the film’s failure, the DCEU largely moved away from the dour, joyless tones Snyder had imbued into Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League opting for a full turn into a lighter, bouncer feel readily seen in films like Aquaman and especially Shazam!. But for a certain devoted group of fans, there was always a desire to see what Snyder’s vision of the film could be...and thus #ReleaseTheSnyderCut was born. What follows is a story about a lot of different things: fans who feel inherent ownership of a property and are therefore entitled to a certain outcome, how social media can be weaponized, and what means to ultimately be a “real fan.”