'Release the Snyder Cut:' Author Sean O'Connell Talks Zack Snyder, Passionate Fans, and Stories of Heroism
“This matters as much as life and death.”
Credit: @snydercut / Instagram
What began as a call to action from disappointed fans has turned into an unprecedented movement and cultural phenomenon. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, a hashtag that took over Twitter and the rest of social media after the release of 2017’s JUSTICE LEAGUE, references the lost cut of the film from director Zack Snyder after he had to depart the project due to a family tragedy.
It is the subject of the new book by author Sean O’Connell, who is no stranger to this universe—in addition to being a life-long fan of comics, he is the managing director of entertainment website CinemaBlend, co-host of movie-centric podcast ReelBlend, and an entertainment journalist who has covered everything from red carpets to Comic-Con.
Credit: @snydercut / Instagram
To understand the history of the Snyder Cut, more than a bit of digging is required. O’Connell explores the story in great detail in the book, for which he dedicated years to researching and interviewing fans and creatives alike. Snyder had been a big name in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), directing titles such as 2013’s MAN OF STEEL and 2016’s BATMAN V. SUPERMAN. Snyder was an architect in the DCEU, crafting plans for the universe as a whole and helping to interweave all of the films to connect together, including films he produced such as 2017’s WONDER WOMAN. Prior to the family tragedy that ultimately led to Snyder departing the project, he and Warner Bros. (the production company behind the film) had not been seeing eye-to-eye creatively. Though Snyder’s previous films for the franchise had been mostly commercially successful, the feedback from impassioned fans and critics was not always positive. This caused the studio to have doubt in Snyder’s vision, and the company hired writer/director Joss Whedon—fresh off his turn helming multiple films in the rival Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)—to re-write and ultimately co-direct JUSTICE LEAGUE.
Among news that has since broken that Whedon created a hostile and unsafe working environment for cast and crew (with actors from other franchises as well as JL cast members Gal Gadot and Ray Fisher speaking out against him), Whedon didn’t so much re-work Snyder’s vision for the film as he did completely re-invent it into something that is both unrecognizable and unsupported by fans.
Credit: @snydercut / Instagram
Enter #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. It wasn’t hard for fans to see that the version of the film that was released in theaters after Whedon got involved was drastically different than what Snyder had been setting up. Whedon is reported to have only kept a fraction of what Snyder and co. had shot, and the series of expensive re-shoots combined with his messy interpretation of the film created an end-product that was so strongly disliked by fans, it prompted them to boycott the movie and start fighting for Snyder’s cut of the film—a cut they weren’t even certain existed at the time they began campaigning.
A lot of the heart behind the movement comes from the deep connections that fans have drawn from the characters, as well as being able to relate to the tragedy that Snyder and his family experienced. Through the movement, fans have raised over $150,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the personal stories from fans of how these films and this movement have saved them are a major component of the book. “People would literally say that Zack’s interpretation of these characters changed their lives, or arrived at a time when they really needed these stories of heroism,” O’Connell says. “That really touched me . . . and the more that I reached out and talked to them over the course of several months, they became the story that I wanted to tell.”
Important to not only him, but the Snyder family, was to make sure that people understood that this movement was so much more than just a group of people fighting for a superhero movie. “I wanted to—if given the opportunity—amplify their voice,” O’Connell said. Getting Snyder’s seal of approval was important for obvious reasons, but also because he had not really spoken up about his opinion on the movement other than the periodic tease on social media that his cut did, indeed, exist. O’Connell was concerned that if Snyder showed any indifference towards the movement, then perhaps it wouldn’t be worth diving into.
“But instead, he actually said, ‘I will never besmirch what they’re doing because I feel that would rob them of everything they’ve accomplished up to this point. I’m floored by those people. I think that they’re the most amazing people. And I’m gonna support them at every turn.’ And I thought, well, if he’s going to, then I’m going to, also.”
Credit: @snydercut / Instagram
Another testament to the fandom and the heart behind it are the amount of people who initially didn’t want credit in the book. O’Connell had to funnel through the people he was interviewing to make sure their intentions were genuine and not just for quick fame. He was surprised to find that the most sincere people initially declined credit because they were worried about taking focus away from Snyder and the film. He shares, “I got to the point where I had to say to them, ‘I get what you’re saying, and I respect that, but this story is going to get told and you guys did the work.’”
Indeed, they did do the work—and it’s finally paying off. After years of passionate campaigning, on May 20th, 2020, the director made it official: the Snyder cut was coming. The internet broke, so to speak, as fans took to social media to express their joy, disbelief, and excitement. After all, it was the astounding popularity of the movement that caught Warner Bros.’ attention and prompted them to reach out to Snyder to discuss the possibility of releasing his cut. After some back and forth between the director and the studio to determine the best approach, it was agreed that the four-hour epic would be divided into chapters and released on their newest streaming service, HBO Max, on March 18th, 2021.
With a formal release date announced and a tangible prize the community could set their eyes on, the passion of the movement only grew stronger. The risk that comes with a movement as powerful as this one is that almost too much stock could be put into it as fans hype and romanticize the film in their minds. “Maybe I won’t like it!” O’Connell quips. “That’s always the catch-22 with this movie, too—everybody fought so hard to see it, but what if it doesn’t work? That’s a reality.” Though not wrong, he also believes in his heart that ultimately, this film (and specifically—this cut of the film) is made for the people who really want it. “You hate to call it critic-proof, but it’s one of those things that’s gonna be critic-proof,” he begins. “The people who want to love it are going to love it.”
With the director’s cut officially making its way to home screens (plus an eventual theatrical release, according to Snyder), it’s a fair question to wonder how this move may affect other films in the franchise moving forward. So what does O’Connell’s ideal DCEU look like? “I want them to back filmmakers who want to tell [their] versions of their stories,” he says. “I want to see the same passion in the DC Universe that you tend to see on the Marvel side . . . find that passion with filmmakers and talent who want to do it—don’t do it because you laid out a ten-year plan and the next one is just a ‘Flash’ movie because the calendar says it’s a ‘Flash’ movie.”