“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” director Zack Snyder and producer Deborah Snyder discuss their upcoming DC film in this interview with CinemaBlend Managing Editor, Sean O’Connell, and CinemaBlend Head of Video, Hannah Saulic. Find out who wrote the dialogue for the Snyder Cut’s additional photography, the story behind the film’s AFSP Easter egg, the message for the #RestoreTheSnyderverse community and more.
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00:00So I was just curious if you maybe repurposed any Superman footage for Justice League.
00:10We live in a society where honor is a distant memory.
00:16All right, I'm gonna kick us off. So Sean and I have a weekly show where we've been discussing
00:21all things Snyder Cut, and a lot of people are super excited about the additional photography,
00:25so I have to ask, who wrote the dialogue for that? Because I think the internet needs to
00:29know who to thank for the Joker's we live in a society line. I wrote the dialogue for it,
00:36for the scene, for that scene. But, you know, it was, I had sent it over to Chris,
00:45you know, when I was getting ready to just see if he had any tweaks and he seemed,
00:48he thought it was pretty cool, so yeah. Isn't that right?
00:55Batman. Zach, I'm curious, over the three years when, you know, everybody was discussing the
01:00rumored cut, how many times do you estimate that you busted it out and screened it for
01:05friends and family in that theater room that you have? Oh, maybe, maybe less than a dozen times,
01:12probably. Not, not that much, you know, it was, you know, frankly, I was, it was,
01:20it was a thing that, you know, first of all, it was long. And, you know, my type group, the group
01:29that I'm with most of the time, they're, they kind of know the story, and they're kind of knee deep
01:34in it. So the last thing they wanted was to, you know, it's like that. You're like, I'm like that
01:40crazy guy that's like, come look at my movie. It's awesome. You know, so they're, so I think
01:46in that sense, you know, it was, it was like a handful of times, but, you know, it was really
01:50interesting, you know, to do it because, you know, they, people would always be like, holy
01:56jeez, like, this is crazy. Like, what is this? It's my legacy.
02:00Hey Sean and hi Hannah, how are you? Wonderful, thank you. So happy to get some time with you.
02:06I have to start here. Watching the film, I noticed the AFSP Easter egg that you included
02:12in the billboard with the message telling people you are not alone. And I was hoping you could just
02:16talk to us about the decision to include that and how you guys decided where to put it.
02:22Well, you know, I think this journey for us, I think, towards Zack Snyder's Justice League really,
02:31you know, started with the fans and them taking on a cause that obviously, you know,
02:38is near and dear to us. But I also think like today, you know, with the year we've had with
02:45so many people losing their jobs or losing loved ones, mental health is so important.
02:51So we wanted to continue the work to support AFSP. And a lot of the things we're doing at the
02:58release of the film are also, you know, fundraising, you know, for money for them. But
03:03also, I think to generate awareness, because I think mental health, so many times, there's still
03:09such a stigma, you know, against it. And people are afraid to talk about it. They're embarrassed
03:15to talk about it. And when we made the decision to come forward about, you know, our tragic loss of
03:22Autumn, we did so, you know, very thoughtfully, but also feeling like maybe out of such a horrible
03:30thing, we can at least, you know, tell our story and tell people that there are help, that there's
03:36help out there. And kind of, you know, spread that word that it's okay to talk about it. And
03:42there is support out there. So, you know, I think it's been amazing to see this fan community
03:49embrace this cause. And even when they were trying to get the movie made all along,
03:54they were still raising money and raising awareness for AFSP.
03:58So there was this billboard, and we had something else on it. And Zach was like,
04:02I think this would be a great place to kind of incorporate it in the movie.
04:06I'm not broken. And I'm not alone.
04:11There's a shot of Superman in Justice League, and I won't say where, but it looks very similar to me
04:16to a shot that we see in Man of Steel. So I was just curious if you maybe repurposed
04:21any Superman footage for Justice League?
04:25I wonder. Yeah.
04:28That's it?
04:30I mean, listen, we're in a pandemic. So, you know, it was a very, doing the,
04:37finding the shots and performance was challenging. So, but we were able to figure it out.
04:43You have been to the art of deception as Mozart to the harpsichord.
04:48I want to switch gears a little bit. I think a lot of female forward films,
04:51especially in this genre, struggle to convey a feminist message without being a little bit cheesy
04:57or too on the nose. And in Justice League, there's a moment with Wonder Woman that I thought could
05:02have fallen into that trap, but it didn't. So I was just curious if that was something
05:05that you guys were conscious of.
05:07Well, I think there's two moments for me with Wonder Woman. You know, Wonder Woman,
05:13it's always been important to have this balance of femininity, but also of strength. And we have
05:19to look like the root of her character, you know, was born with, you know, in feminism.
05:25So I think striking that balance was really important. But I love the fact when the little
05:31girl, after she saves all the kids and she says, can I be like you one day? And she says,
05:37you can be anything you want to be, because I think we're all Wonder Woman, right? That's
05:42the message there. And then I do love when in the tunnel battle, when Steppenwolf says,
05:49this one is mine. And she goes, I belong to no one. And I just, I just think that is such a
05:55powerful moment, you know, so and that's what I love about her in this version of the film.
06:02We really get to see her as a warrior, but we also get to see to the struggle with her of her
06:07missing her family. Um, you know, because I think that's the thing, like as a woman and seeing women
06:14in comics and in action, I want them to be dimensional, you know, you don't have to be
06:18just one thing, you know, you can be vulnerable and sensitive, and you can also be tough and
06:25strong at the same time. Obviously, you know, over the course of this whole thing, you encourage the
06:33release of Snyder Cut family, keep fighting for this version of it. Now that there is a
06:38restore the Snyderverse campaign, I'm wondering if you have a message for those folks.
06:43Listen, you know, I said, I really, I really appreciate the support. It's unbelievable.
06:48And I couldn't, you know, I think it's just a testament in a lot of ways to the way we,
06:54we approach these characters and the way I feel about them. And I think the way I feel about them
06:59is similar to the way a lot of the fans feel about them in the sense that, you know, they really
07:03take this seriously, and they believe in this mythology, and they, you know, they want, you
07:08know, to know, they want to go on that journey. And so, you know, all I can say is that we didn't
07:16think we'd be here, making this movie, releasing it, that's for sure I didn't. So, you know,
07:23I just, I'm happy to talk with the fans anytime they want about, you know, about the universe.
07:30And yeah, the time is now.