It’s only going to take four years and a controversial fan campaign to happen, but Zack Snyder will finally bring his vision for Justice League to audiences in 2021 — and now the appropriately titled Zack Snyder’s Justice League has its first, official trailer.
Snyder premiered the trailer August 22 during the DC FanDome event, a virtual comic convention of sorts with online panels dedicated to various projects featuring DC Comics characters. During the Justice League panel, Snyder recounted the long road to the screen his preferred cut of the film has taken — a journey that will culminate in Zack Snyder’s Justice League premiering on HBO Max next year.
The fifth installment of Warner Bros. Pictures’ live-action DC Extended Universe, Justice League originally premiered in November 2017. The film had Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) team up with Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) to battle an alien invasion force led by the powerful Steppenwolf. Their efforts lead to the resurrection of Superman (Henry Cavill), who sacrificed his life in Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but the Man of Steel’s return comes with its own, deadly set of problems.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League will offer an extended, recut version of the 2017 film that aligns more closely with Snyder’s original vision for the project. Snyder exited Justice League during the production of the film due to a family tragedy and was replaced by The Avengers director Joss Whedon. The film was met with underwhelming ticket sales and negative reviews from both professional critics and general audiences, and ended up becoming one of the lowest-grossing films in the DCEU both domestically and worldwide.
Snyder’s cut of the film is expected to restore all of the work he did on the film before departing the project — much of which was reportedly scrapped by Whedon.