#Zack Snyder’s Plan to Split Justice League Into Two Parts – /Film

The phrase “Zack Snyder‘s Justice League” was once a simple description of a muddled theatrical release from several years ago. But it now gives new hope to a group of fans who have been dying to see whether the filmmaker’s combination of original material and new additions lives up to sky-high expectations.

In a new interview, Snyder gave another update about the Snyder Cut and touched on several things that may interest fans, including his time working with Jared Leto, his plan to split Justice League into two two-hour movies, the film’s structure, and more.

Remember. #UsUnited pic.twitter.com/KqYpkw0wsf

— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) November 14, 2020

A New Photo

Before we get into Snyder’s comments actor Ray Fisher, who plays Cyborg, shared this photo from the new cut of the film featuring his character using a hologram to take a gander at some Mother Boxes.

Two Movies?

When Justice League was first announced, the official plan was for Snyder to make two separate Justice League movies that were broken into Part 1 and Part 2. That plan seemed to be scaled back to just one movie by the time production on the theatrical cut began. However, in an interview with The Film Junkee (via ScreenRant), Snyder seems to complicate things a tiny bit by seemingly talking about a different plan that could have resulted in two Justice League movies. This plan would have taken his long cut of the first Justice League and split it into two two-hour movies:

“The studio had seen the director’s cut, but even the director’s cut of the movie was shorter than my cut. Yes, this is my cut of the movie, but there was a cut of the movie that I created that I said, ‘This is too much for the studio.’ The mandate was, ‘Make the movie two hours long.’ I cannot show them a four-hour version of the movie. I did have this idea where, ‘Oh, maybe we could just split it in half and make it two two-hour movies.’ My first idea was you show two hours, and then there’s like a month [break], and then the next two hours come out.”

That obviously did not end up happening, but we’ve been saying for months now that in a world in which Snyder gets tens of millions of dollars to make this HBO Max version of the story, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched to think that we could see even more DC content from him later on.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is Four Parts, But Six Chapters

We know that the four-hour version of Justice League will be broken up into four parts on HBO Max and will debut sometime in 2021. But Snyder says that structurally, the film is broken into not four, but six different chapters:

“The thing about the movie that I think is interesting is the way I constructed the cut was, it’s six chapters, right? It was always this chaptered concept, where the first section says ‘Part 1’ and you have this little section, ‘Part 2’ and you have another section, [etc.] And then an epilogue. So the structure of the movie always lent itself to this…”

That’s news to me, and now I’m curious to see how the flow of the story progresses in this manner. I remember watching Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake on Netflix, which was divided into different chunks on that streaming service than when it originally aired on the Sundance Channel, and that editing resulted in some awkward moments which felt as if episodes should have ended either a few minutes before or a few minutes after those seemingly random division points. Fingers crossed we don’t get a repeat of that experience.

Jared Leto’s Joker

Not long ago, Snyder confirmed that Jared Leto’s Joker would be appearing in this version of Justice League. It turns out Snyder cold-called Leto to ask if he’d be interested in participating:

“For me, though, in my world, if Joker was going to make an appearance, it would be the Jared Leto Joker…I had this idea for a scene. I had a version of this scene that I had written maybe three years ago. Slightly different, but very similar. But then, for whatever reason, for a multitude of reasons, I didn’t do it. [Presumably alluding to when he left the film] Then I was talking to [his wife and producing partner] Debbie, and I was like, “I have this…do you think it would possible? Am I crazy? Should I just cold call him?” So I called him…it was a cool conversation. When I pitched him the idea, I feel like he hooked onto the ‘why’ of it, because there’s a big ‘why.’ And literally, he said to me, ‘We’ll talk more.’ I kept calling him, we talked over a while, and he agreed to do it. It was a great experience working with him.”

Snyder’s Ideal Presentation

Whether or not IMAX theaters are safe to visit when the Snyder Cut debuts remains to be seen, but according to the director, his ideal version of the film is not only in an immersive IMAX theater, but also in black and white:

“My ideal version of the movie is the black and white IMAX version of the movie. That, to me, is the most fan-centric, most pure, most Justice League experience. Because that’s how I lived with the movie for two years, in black and white…when I do the live-stream of the trailer, Steph and I colored a black and white version of the trailer. So the first version that I’m going to put out, and probably what I’m going to talk about on Tuesday, will be the black and white version of the trailer.”

That certainly makes it sound like we’re going to be getting a new trailer for his cut of the film tomorrow, so stay tuned to /Film to check that out as soon as it’s released.

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