Zack Snyder has opened up about his reasons for leaving the DC movie Justice League – the director left the project during post-production in May 2017 and was replaced by Joss Whedon.
As this occurred two months after the death of his daughter, it was assumed that personal family matters were the sole reason for his departure. However, in the upcoming book Release the Snyder Cut, the filmmaker hints at other reasons in addition to grief.
"I just was kind of done with it," Snyder said (via Comicbook.com). "I was in this place of [knowing] my family needs me more than this bullshit, and I just need to honor them and do the best I can to heal that world. I had no energy to fight [the studio], and fight for [the movie]. Literally, zero energy for that. I really think that's the main thing."
Justice League follows Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) as they attempt to save the world from the catastrophic threat of Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds). Whedon was responsible for a number of reshoots and other changes that added more humor to the movie and significantly cut down on the runtime.
He added: "I think there's a different world where I stayed and kind of tried. And I'm sure I could have because every movie is a fight, right? I was used to that. But I just did not have the [energy]. There was no fight in me. I had been beaten by what was going on in my life and I just didn't want to, I didn’t care to... that was kind of where I was."
Snyder's four-hour director's cut of the movie, Zack Snyder's Justice League, is due to be released on HBO Max sometime in March 2021. In the meantime, you can catch up on the DCEU with our guide to watching the DC movies in order.
