Los Angeles, 2019. It has been almost two years since Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s Justice League was released to apathetic reception. All the members of the film’s creative team have moved on to other projects, yet the specter of the mythical unreleased “Snyder cut” still pops up occasionally to haunt and annoy.
This latest haunting comes directly from Jason Momoa’s Instagram. Momoa recently posted a bizarre ad for Leica Camera, a video in which his friend and colleague Zack Snyder appears and receives a camera as a gift. There’s not a lot to the video honestly. But there’s a slightly more interesting story is in the Instagram post’s caption, where Momoa thanks Zack Snyder for “showing me the Snyder cut.” Lest we think Momoa is being insincere in his appreciation, he also writes, “I wish I was a better actor but I can’t lie. The Snyder cut is ssssiiicccckkkkkk”.
Okay…I don’t have to be the only one to say this, do I? The “Snyder Cut” (presumably the version of Justice League where Zack Snyder had full directorial authority) will never be released. If it exists at all, it’s as some type of assembly cut, which means it’s full of choppy edits, unfinished effects shots, and excruciating sound mixing. These things require loads of money to finish and/or fix, money that will not be supplied because Warner Bros. already spent a ton to finish a Justice League movie, and they didn’t see a single dime back.
The fact that Jason Momoa—a noted friend and colleague of Zack Snyder—off-handedly mentions a “Snyder cut” in the caption of an Instagram ad should have no bearing on the average viewer’s hopes to see a “Snyder cut” get officially released.
If it warms your heart to know that Snyder showed Momoa an alternate cut of Justice League that Momoa thought was “ssssiiicccckkkkkk”, then more power to you. But if you think that this will be the push that finally gets a “Snyder cut” funded and released, you’re going to be disappointed. Your energy would be much better spent trying to convince Warner Bros. to release Ken Russell’s The Devils on HBO MAX.