Report: There was a rough Snyder Cut and here’s who saw it

There was a very rough Snyder cut of Justice League. 

And it was shown to a small group of filmmakers, including Joss Whedon, who would be called in to make the final, released “Whedon Cut.”

At least that’s what a story in the NYT by Kyle Buchanon relates. 

Buchanon, who was reporting for Vulture and made a set visit to Justice League back in the day, has been something of an expert on the history of the Justice League for some time. In his new piece he summarizes the rise and fall of director Zack Snyder’s vision of the DCU – from the high grossing but critically dubbed “Martha Cut” that was Batman V Superman to having to leave Justice League because of a family tragedy…and a bad reaction to his version.  

It seems that after seeing a rough cut of Snyder’s version, WB deemed that changes needed to be made. 

After screening Snyder’s rough cut of “Justice League” for a small group of filmmakers including the “Straight Outta Compton” screenwriter Andrea Berloff, the “Wonder Woman” scribe Allan Heinberg and “The Avengers” director Joss Whedon, Warner Bros. hired Whedon to helm a substantial round of reshoots that included almost 80 new script pages. This version gave Gadot and “Man of Steel” holdovers Amy Adams and Diane Lane far more to do, significantly trimmed subplots involving the Flash and Cyborg (one character, a love interest for Miller played by Kiersey Clemons, was cut entirely) and added more jokes.

So this, then is the legendary “Snyder Cut” that many have spoken of. Was this what Jason Momoa saw and judged to be “ssssiiicccckkkkkk”???? That we may never know, as based on Buchanon’s guest list this was high level filmmaker stuff and not something the cast would be privy to. 

As we reported yesterday, this rough was surely in no finished shape.  Buchanon reports that it would take 8 figures to bring the footage to a completed state. 

But with all the sudden heat around the topic, including tweets from the cast, could this be a trial balloon for something ATT/WB is planning to roll out for HBO Max? 

Who knows! It could be their Mandalorian. 

But Buchanon is ready with a cold bucket of water. “Affleck and Gadot may have lent their weight to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, but corporate indifference is a foe against which few superheroes can hope to prevail,” he concludes.

But now that we know that some fashion of a Snyder Cut exists and was shown to people, expect the outcry to continue.