Image: Warner Bros.

People who like Zack Snyder and his work have a tendency to really like Zack Snyder and his work. So it’s no surprise that the shifts late in Justice League’s production, which include a hefty infusion of Joss Whedon-helmed reshoots and directorial judgments, would be unpalatable to Snyder’s diehards.


Thus enter that old mainstay of angry internet mobs everywhere: the Change.org petition. This one, created by Roberto Mata of San Juan, Puerto Rico, has amassed over 33,000 signatures in just a few days, as of press time, close to its goal of 35,000. The petition, aimed at Warner Bros. itself, requests the release of “Zack Snyder’s Director Cut and Tom Holkenborg’s (Junkie XL) Score” for home release.

According to the petition description, which clocks in at nearly 2,500 words (and involves more than a little shouting), “Fans have been waiting for years, while others have waited decades for the film to finally arrive on the silver screen. The 2hr runtime is disrespectful towards Zack Snyder’s vision and towards the fans who have waited for more than a year to see the alien’s story come to an end.”


The problem, of course (well, one of many problems) is that it’s unclear if the cut these fans are asking for even exists. Snyder did likely have a cut of the film at one point in production before he stepped down, as the petition describes, but that cut would have been an unfinished one, likely with in-progress VFX work and placeholder music. The film these fans are imagining, a complete work that fits Snyder’s “vision” for Justice League, most likely doesn’t exist and never did. Whedon’s reshoots weren’t merely a means of modifying Snyder’s “pure” vision—they were deemed necessary work to complete the film. Whedon’s Justice League, for better or worse, is the only one we’ve got.

That doesn’t mean a healthy amount of incomplete Snyder footage wasn’t left on the cutting room floor, however, and these fans were likely cheered to see some of it leak last night. According to a report on Comicbook.com, the footage appeared on Vimeo, though it has since been taken down.

The scenes, which were without sound, were incomplete, and largely centered on Cyborg. In one, Cyborg creates a digital rendition of a scene in Nazi Germany, which he then occupies as a digital version of himself. Another shows Cyborg processing information at a superhuman rate; another has him figuring out how to fly.

A later scene also shows a glimpse of Kiersey Clemons’s cut Iris West, in a sequence familiar from some of the trailers. In it, The Flash breaks through the glass window of a convenience store to save the heroine from a deadly car crash.


(Comicbook.com has an extensive breakdown of the scenes here, if you’re curious for more info.)

Like the petitioners, I’m also interested in knowing more about how the final film differed from Zack Snyder’s idea of it. But there’s only one Justice League movie, and it’s the one in theaters. Sorry, y’all.


[Change.org]