‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ Producer Deborah Snyder Talks Sequels, Reshoots and the “Heartbreaking” Theatrical Release

Deborah Snyder has been with her husband, Zack Snyder, since the beginning of the married couple’s journey into the DC Extended Universe. She worked as a producer on Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), and as an executive producer on Suicide Squad (2016) and Aquaman (2018). So, after all those years spent with those superheroes and their story, she was heartbroken when she saw the culmination of her and Zack’s work in 2017’s Justice League.

“It was just so radically different,” Snyder told Decider. “Just the heartbreak of working on something for such a long time, and to have it be so different.”

The couple both left the film following the tragic death of their daughter, and Avengers director Joss Whedon — who was already punching up the in production script — was brought on to finish the directing job. The result was something so different from what Zack Snyder had envisioned, Deborah Snyder vowed to never let her husband see the film.

But now—following a hard-fought and, at times, toxic fan campaign to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut—the Snyders’ vision has been realized. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is four hours long and will release on HBO Max on March 18. Decider spoke to producer Deborah Snyder about how she and Zack recut the film, the reason for the 4:3 aspect ratio, and the possibility of a Justice League sequel.

Decider: I read in Vanity Fair that you watched the 2017 Justice League movie, and you came away vowing to never let your husband see that film. What did you see in that film that led you to that promise?

Deborah Snyder: When you’re so invested in these characters—and you know, for us now, it’s an 11-plus year experience with them—and you’ve planned out what you want to do in the world, and you’ve worked on the scripts, and especially for a director who really puts their self out there… It’s their personal vision. Especially for Zack, because he definitely has a point of view. When I saw that original film—and without judgment on it—it was just a completely different vision than we have for the film. Once we stepped away, it wasn’t like we were checking in or giving notes. We needed our time to be with our family. It was just so radically different. We didn’t know we would be sitting here today and Zack would actually get to finish his vision. So I think, just the heartbreak of working on something for such a long time and to have it be so different. This was the accumulation of Man of Steel, BvS, and now Justice League. To not be able to finish that vision, I think, was the part that was the most heartbreaking.

And now you have finished your vision. The new film is four hours divided into six parts, plus the epilogue. Given that format, and given that it’s coming to HBO Max, why not release it as a miniseries?

We did initially talk about that. I think we said, “It’s gonna be four parts.” But when HBO [Max] launched, they learned a lot about what audiences want. And it seems like people want to be able to watch it, especially with streaming services, on their own time. Some people will binge-watch it, and they will watch the whole four hours. And then there are other people [who will watch it in parts]. And the parts are there, which work really well thematically, in case you want to just watch one part or two parts. What they’ve done, the engineers, they created a timeline at the bottom of the screen. There are little indentations. So you can find the parts easily or want to go back, you have a favorite part, you can go back really easily.

We wanted to make sure that the fans got the experience they wanted, you know, and they got to see all of it at once. I think there were a couple of releases where fans wanted more of it. There’s different models of how things get released. So this was, I think, a good way of accomplishing both things.

Another unusual choice is the 4:3 aspect ratio. What is the reasoning behind that format?

The film was originally shot that way. You know, don’t forget it was intended for the theatrical release, and it was intended to have an IMAX release. But now that it was on HBO Max, Zack didn’t want to change the aspect ratio, because everything was framed that way. And it’s also, I just think it’s just so unique. You’re getting so much of the picture, you’re seeing a lot more. If we then made the decision to just chop it off, we would be losing part of the frame. So it was really important to maintain the aspect ratio because that’s how it was originally intended to be. That’s how it was shot. That’s how the visual effects were done.

How much of the footage in this new movie existed by the year 2017? We’ve heard reports that Zack had a four-hour cut of the film even then, but the HBO Max announcement made it sound like the Snyder Cut was being created.

We always have director’s cuts of everything we do. We had this longer version of the film. At one point, I think Zack was like, well, maybe this longer version—because this was before HBO Max, before it could be four hours—it’s either gonna be on the DVD or [on streaming], now streaming allows this to be possible. But it wasn’t going to be a theatrical release. It all existed. The only thing that we shot was that we did a pickup of one scene, and we did the Batman/Joker scene at the end. So we shot for three days. All of that footage existed. But what didn’t exist was all the visual effects. We had to complete over 2,560 visual effects shots. The score, we had some of the themes done, but nothing was orchestrated. Tom [Holkenborg] had to basically do a whole four-hour score.

And we thought that that version was just for us, for our family and friends. So once HBO Max said, “Hey, would you like to do this?” Zack was like, “Well, let me go back in and just like, you know, nuance it, or see if there’s another take.” We did some work on the cut. Then it was just a matter of finishing it. It was a big job in finishing it because Zack wanted to go back to the original models of the characters. Visual effects were done, but they were done in a way that visually didn’t work with his palette. So we had to redo those shots. Like some of the backgrounds, they just looked different. They had a different look and feel, which I think is pretty obvious when you see the two films. So there was a lot of work that we had to go back and redo as well as new work of characters, like Darkseid, who wasn’t in the original.

One difference from the original I appreciated was the way Wonder Woman was shot. The first movie was criticized for objectifying her, and this film features far fewer shots of her butt, to be frank. How intentional was that change?

Listen, I think Zack always has strong women in his movies. For Wonder Woman, I think it was important to show that she is multi-dimensional. She can be vulnerable and sensitive, but she’s also super strong and she’s a fierce warrior. This is how we always intended on showing her. I love some of the lines that weren’t in the theatrical cut—like with the little girl asking, “Can I be you someday?” “You can be anything you want to be.” Because that’s who Wonder Woman is. She’s empowering. And we are all Wonder Woman. I think that’s still a big part of her message. So I’m glad you liked that, because that was something that was important to us.

The film ends with a huge cliffhanger—a big character reveal—that feels like it’s setting up a sequel. Are you guys going to pursue another Justice League movie? Is that a possibility? 

I think Warner Brothers has moved in another direction. They have a lot of movies in development. For us, this was about completing what we started and actually getting the Justice League to come together. But, we didn’t want to change the film. It was supposed to be a cliffhanger. There were two other movies that Zack had ideas about. We wanted it to be the original version. So, for us to start changing it didn’t feel organic. The intent was to put Zack’s original vision on the screen.

But you know, as for us, I mean, listen, there are so many stories we want to tell that are out there. And I think this journey has been so great. It’s taken a lot of hard work to get to this point. I think we’re just enjoying the moment because we haven’t had a chance to catch our breath from all the production and the deadlines of delivering it in time.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Watch Zack Snyder's Justice League on HBO Max