Zack Snyder To Shoot New Material For ‘Justice League’

Zach Snyder‘s cut of Justice League will require reshoots of its own.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder will mount additional photography in October to complete his version of the film. The plan is ironic as the original reshoots in 2017 caused all the trouble leading to the SnyderCut movement and actor Ray Fisher‘s claims against Snyder’s replacement, Joss Whedon, and elements of the DC Films management team.
To recap: Snyder left the production in the Spring of 2017 to deal with a family tragedy. Whedon, already hired by Warner Bros. Pictures to write additional scenes for the film, stepped into to film the new material. Though Snyder retained the director’s credit when Justice League was released that November, the film was a compromised effort as his darker material clashed with the Whedonesque quality of certain scenes. Complicating matters, star Henry Cavil could not shave the mustache he grew for Mission: Impossible — Fallout, thus all of the scenes he shot for Whedon had to be digitally altered to remove the facial hair.
While not as polarizing as Snyder’s previous DC film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the relative mediocrity of Justice League fueled a fan campaign to see the release of a cut Snyder delivered to Warner Bros. before Whedon was hired to write new scenes. Still in a raw form and lacking visual effects work, this so-called “SnyderCut” took on a life of its own; leading to HBO Max offering Snyder the chance to complete his vision. The end result will not be the version screened for executives, but something more lavish as it will be presented in four hour-long episodes on the streaming service.
The new vision requires new scenes and will feature the return of Cavil as the Man of Steel, Ben Affleck as the Bat of Gotham, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and Fisher as Cyborg. The latter’s expected presence on set is of particular note as Fisher has waged a campaign against Whedon and former DC Films heads Geoff Johns and Jon Berg all summer.
In July, the actor alleged the Avengers director was abusive to cast and crew during the infamous reshoots — which THR now reports were hasty and troubled. Fisher latter revealed Johns threatened his career when he first attempted to take his complaints to management during production. Warner Bros. launched an investigation in August which Fisher later criticized as they used a third-party firm with ties to the studio. In his most recent statement on the matter, the actor called for WarnerMedia to take on the investigation as the studio cannot, in his opinion, be trusted to be fair.
As it happens, he is also in negotiations with Warner Bros. for an appearance in the upcoming Flash feature.
Presumably, Fisher and the studio will come to some sort of amicable solution. His return to the role for Snyder is, in a way, an indication that some elements of the WarnerMedia empire are willing to work with him. Of course, a real accord is still off in the distance and likely not to be settled until he’s shooting his Flash scenes.
Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League will debut on HBO Max next year.