Everything to know about Zack Snyder's 4-hour 'Justice League' movie that's coming to HBO Max

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Zack Snyder's version of "Justice League" will finally see the light of day in 2021. Warner Bros.
  • Zack Snyder is finally releasing his version of "Justice League" on HBO Max on March 18.
  • The director stepped down from the film after the death of his daughter in 2017.
  • His film is four hours long and will have a new villain, Darkseid, along with Jared Leto's Joker.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
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Fans will finally see the original "Justice League" director's true vision of the film this week. After years of speculation and rallying from fans, the "Snyder Cut" will stream on HBO Max on March 18.

Zack Snyder and his producing partner and wife, Deborah Snyder, are among the many people who worked on the new cut of the film. 

"At the time, the hashtag #releasethesyndercut was the largest sort of volumized hashtag and/or social media presence of any Warner Bros.' movie ever made, and it didn't exist," Zack said during a Justice Con panel to help raise funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

"That feels problematic. If I own a studio, that feels like an issue I think we need to figure that out," he added.

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Over the past year, the Snyders have briefly spoken about the film a handful of times. Zack revealed more information about the movie at WB's virtual DC Fandome event along with a trailer.

In November, he spoke with YouTuber Grace Randolph a bit more about the HBO Max cut before opening up to Vanity Fair in February. In March, Deborah Snyder spoke with Insider

Here's what you should know about the four-hour cut and why it's worth your time.

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The film won't contain any footage Joss Whedon shot for the 2017 release.

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Any moment with a red sky will not be in Snyder's cut of the film. Warner Bros.

When asked if his version of "Justice League" will contain any of Whedon's footage at Justice Con, Zack Snyder said there wasn't a chance we'd see anything that someone else filmed in the HBO Max cut.

"I would set it on fire before I would use a single frame that I did not photograph. That is a f---ing hard fact," said Snyder.

So that red sky that was featured prominently during the big fight with the parademons? That will be going away.

Snyder is working off of a 2017 version of the film.

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Snyder has his own cut of the film without any of the reshot footage. Warner Bros.

"The cut that I'm working on was finished in February of, I think it was, 2017," Zack Snyder said at Justice Con. "That's the giant super long version of the movie."

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It will be available on HBO Max on March 18, 2021.

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Jason Momoa as Aquaman in "Justice League." Warner Bros.

Snyder tweeted the film's release date along with two black and white posters.

The director previously confirmed the film would get a March release on the social media app, Vero, which the director uses to communicate with fans.

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Henry Cavill's Superman will be seen wearing his iconic black suit.

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Snyder debuted a clip of Superman in his black suit during Justice Con. Warner Bros. via Justice Con

Zack Snyder teased the suit during a conversation at Justice Con. He recalled arguing with Warner Bros. to use the black suit in the original film and was told they didn't think it was a good idea.

"I knew it was the correct evolution for him when he rose from the dead that he would be in the black suit," said Snyder. "There was this obsession with it being funny or light or something. And for some reason the perception of the black suit made everyone feel like, 'Oh, that sounds like you're just trying to make the movie dark and scary.'"

Though he backed down at the time, Snyder said he experimented to make sure they could change the color of the suit later on if needed.

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The film will showcase a different villain, Darkseid.

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Darkseid was teased in an HBO Max trailer. Warner Bros./HBO Max

Darkseid is notoriously one of the biggest villains in the DC Universe, but he never wound up in the 2017 movie. The character was seen in Snyder's first teaser for his cut of the film.

Steppenwolf, who became the villain of the theatrical release, will still be in the new movie with a look that's closer to his original design. Zack Snyder hinted we'll see him with his older design, describing him as scary and cool.

"He just wants Darkseid to accept him and take him back," said Snyder.

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The film is four hours and two minutes long.

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Would you watch a four-hour "Justice League" movie in one sitting? Warner Bros.

The new version will be twice as long as the original theatrical cut. 

Originally, they considered releasing it in four parts on HBO Max, but ditched that for one long theatrical cut split into six segments.

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It will be available for international audiences to watch.

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The heroes all gather together in the new trailer for the film. HBOMax/DC

"We're working on a distribution plan," said Zack Snyder for any international fans hoping to watch his version of "Justice League" who don't have access to HBO Max. 

WarnerMedia announced the film will be made available worldwide everywhere except China, France, and Japan for the moment on Thursday. It will be available on HBO Go where the streamer is available for HBO Europe and HBO Asia. Collider has a few other options listed for how you'll be able to view the film.

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Snyder has been restoring the film so you can see more of the movie.

zack snyder justice league aspect ratio
Snyder said he wanted the entire film to be shown in a large 4:3 aspect ratio to fill an IMAX screen instead of the widescreen version of films that have become more commonplace in theaters. Justice Con/YouTube

What does that mean? The theatrical release shows the film in widescreen. Snyder is working so you can see the full film in a 4:3 ratio.

"A lot of the restoration is sort of trying to put that back," said Snyder. "It's a completely different sort of aesthetic."

"A lot of the work that we're doing is trying to restore the full-frame. It's literally a restoration project at this point," he added.

Snyder illustrated what he meant with a sketch of Batfleck during Justice Con that you can see above. He and his team are restoring the "extra information" that gets cut out of a widescreen cut of a film.

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What will this be called? "Zack Snyder's Justice League."

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Zack Snyder previously said there were legal reasons that may have prevented them from calling his cut "Zack Snyder's Justice League." HBO Max

"It is the name we all want," said Zack Snyder. "It is the name we are working on. It's legal reasons that restrict it, but we're trying to work that out."

"It is the correct sort of way of looking at the movie because it's really a pure sort of vision unencumbered by anything other than what we think is awesome," he added.

They must have worked everything out because that's the title of the film as of now.

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There will be more of Ray Fisher.

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Above is a new shot of Cyborg that wasn't in the original film release. Warner Bros./HBO Max

Snyder said a lot of the new version of "Justice League" incorporates flashback scenes of Ray Fisher's Cyborg that were removed.

The initial trailers showed footage of Cyborg as a high school football star that were never in the final film.

Snyder's latest cut of the trailer, released November 17 to mark the three-year anniversary of the film's initial release, shows a brand new shot of Cyborg after his accident watching others play football in his neighborhood.

At the time, the director said he hadn't shown the film to Fisher yet because he wanted him to see his scenes completed.

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There's also more of the Flash.

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Ezra Miller as The Flash. Warner Bros.

"I think people are going to see a lot more of The Flash and they're going to see a little bit more of his emotional arc and I hope they enjoy it," said Zack Snyder during DC FanDome.

Snyder also teased we'll see something new with the Flash's super powers.

"You're going to see something with Flash in this film I don't think that you've ever seen before," Snyder told "Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins at the event. "He's a quantum character. He interacts with time and space so you might see him do something that is timely."

Snyder filmed some of Miller's shots while he was working on WB's next "Fantastic Beasts" sequel. He directed over Zoom while the "Fantastic Beasts" crew shot what he needed.

 

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We'll finally see Kiersey Clemons as Iris West.

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A barefoot Barry Allen saves Iris. Warner Bros./HBO Max

A trailer for the film teased Barry Allen/The Flash saving Iris West from a car accident. Iris was cut out of the original "Justice League" movie. 

In the comics and TV show, West and Allen eventually marry.

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Batman's going to curse in the film, which is rated R.

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Ben Affleck's Batman will drop the f-bomb. Warner Bros.

"The movie is insane and so epic and is probably rated R — that's one thing I think will happen, that it will be an R-rated version, for sure," Snyder told Entertainment Weekly

Why? Snyder said the rating would likely be due to violence and profanity, including Ben Affleck's Batman dropping the F-bomb.

"There's one scene where Batman drops an F-bomb. Cyborg is not too happy with what's going on with his life before he meets the Justice League, and he tends to speak his mind," Snyder said.

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The film will contain a scene between Lois Lane and Clark's mother after Superman's death.

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The scene, which was cut from the theatrical release, would have showcased a woman supporting another woman during a time of grief. Warner Bros.

Producer Deborah Snyder was asked if there was a favorite scene of motherhood in the DCEU that moved her during a Justice Con panel.

In addition to a scene between Clark Kent and Martha in "Man of Steel," Snyder mentioned a "Justice League" moment that she couldn't discuss much between Lois Lane and Superman's mother, Martha Kent, played by Diane Lane.  

"There is an amazing scene that was not in the theatrical release, I don't know why, when Diane [Lane] comes to visit Lois after Clark's death and she's been... not going out," said Snyder. 

"It's just this very supportive scene because, even though she's lost her house, she's coming there not to ask for help, but to help Lois," said Snyder, adding that the scene will be in their version of the film.

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The original version of "Justice League" was supposed to have a Martian Manhunter reveal.

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Harry Lennix has the perfect voice for Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz. Warner Bros.

Snyder revealed on Vero that General Swanwick (Harry Lennix) was eventually going to be revealed as Martian Manhunter. 

Maybe we'll still get a nod to his true identity. You can see Snyder's storyboards with Martian Manhunter here.

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Jared Leto will be back as the Joker with a different look.

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Jared Leto gave us a very different version of the character in 2016's "Suicide Squad." Getty Images, Warner Bros.

The first trailer for the Snyder Cut teased the Clown Prince of Crime when a Joker card briefly flew across the screen. 

Zack Snyder confirmed to Grace Randolph on her YouTube show, "Beyond the Trailer," that he approached Leto to join reshoots.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Leto is part of reshoots for the 2017 movie.

"He was really gracious entertaining my idea," Snyder said of approaching Leto to return. "When I told him that it was a thing that I'd been kicking around in my head for quite awhile, I feel like he sort of warmed up to this idea that it was kind of an inevitable thing to have to happen. I am grateful and I am forever in debt to his kindness for doing it."

Snyder added that Leto's Joker will appear in a small scene in the new cut with a new look.

"Some water has gone under the proverbial bridge between when last we saw Joker and this appearance," he added. "He's a rogue, weary Joker."

Vanity Fair debuted the first look at Leto's Joker in the new version of the film. He'll be seen in a premontion of the future with longer locks resembling those of Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger's takes on the character.

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He's not the only one returning. Joe Manganiello is reportedly returning as Deathstroke.

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Manganiello played the comic character briefly. Mike Windle, Getty Images/DC

Manganiello will reprise his role in the Snyder Cut. The actor played the "Teen Titans" villain in a post-credit scene of 2017's "Justice League."

He was teaming up with Lex Luthor to form a group of supervillains — likely the Legion of Doom — to counter the "Justice League." 

The reshoots will add about four to five minutes to the cut's runtime.

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Most of the four-hour cut is working off of Snyder's 2017 version of the film. Warner Bros.

"In the end, it's probably going to be about four minutes or five minutes of additional photography," Snyder told Randolph of how much his reshoots are adding to his four-hour cut of "Justice League."

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The first trailer for the four-part film was released on August 22 at DC FanDome. The official trailer was released on Valentine's Day.

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Here's how the new villain, Darkseid, will look in Zack Snyder's "Justice League." Warner Bros.

You can watch the final trailer for the film, here.

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