Just because “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” (aka The Snyder Cut) was released last year on HBO Max, that doesn’t mean the news surrounding the film is going away. Now, more than a year removed from its release, it appears the entire #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement is starting to get examined. And there are some troubling allegations.
As a quick refresher, Zack Snyder was tasked with making a “Justice League” movie for Warner Bros. years ago. The filmmaker went into production and turned in a rough cut of the film for WB studio heads. Reports surfaced that said WB wasn’t happy with the cut and Joss Whedon was being brought on to consult and help rewrite some scenes for a reshoot. Snyder apparently clashed with that idea, and unfortunately, when his daughter passed away shortly after, the director stepped away, giving Whedon full control of the finished product. That film, 2017’s “Justice League,” bombed, both critically and commercially. Eventually, a social media movement began, using #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, which targeted WB executives in an effort to demand the studio release Snyder’s original cut. The campaign grew and grew. Eventually, WB acquiesced and funded post-production costs to get Zack Snyder’s original version of the film released on HBO Max, dubbed “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.”
But, what if the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign wasn’t entirely organic? What if it was a much more targeted, business-driven movement that, coupled with honest fan enthusiasm, was the cause of so much toxicity? Well, according to a Rolling Stone report (based on documents commissioned in-house by WB), Zack Snyder might not have been the Superman of this story, but instead, he was “like a Lex Luthor wreaking havoc.”
The report claims that the passionate group of Zack Snyder devotees was being manipulated (for lack of a better term) by a coordinated effort (possibly driven by Snyder) to undercut the work of Warner Bros. and force the studio to allow the filmmaker to recut “Justice League” and get a major release. It’s worth noting, for fairness’ sake, the documents Rolling Stone references quite a bit were funded by WB in an effort to understand what happened with the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement. And also, there’s no direct evidence Snyder was working behind the scenes to coordinate the movement to his liking. That said, Rolling Stone did do some third-party research that seems to back up the claims of WB, and there’s quite a bit of circumstantial evidence and anonymous sources that point to Snyder.
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Basically, it appears that there were a number of bots and “fake accounts” used to help bolster the fan engagement of the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement, with 13% of the accounts being deemed fake (up from the typical 5% on Twitter). No one knows exactly where the bots came from and who funded them, but there’s really no denying that bots were used. In addition, there are questions surrounding the validity of the forsnydercut.com website, which is claimed to be run by fans but could be actually run by a digital marketing consultant named Xavier Lannes, who operates a marketing firm that specializes in “cheap, instant Avatar traffic to your website.” The evidence points to domain registration linking Lannes to the site (Snyder denies being involved or funding the site), and the face of the website, Fiona Zheng, is a bit of a mystery, having tweeted exhaustively up until the release of the Snyder Cut and basically dropping off the face of the Earth since then.
“After researching online conversations about the Snyder Cut of the Justice League‘s release, specifically the hashtags ‘ReleaseTheSnyderCut’ and ‘RestoreTheSnyderVerse’ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, [the analysts] detected an increase in negative activity created by both real and fake authors,” WB’s report claimed. “One identified community was made up of real and fake authors that spread negative content about WarnerMedia for not restoring the ‘SnyderVerse.’ Additionally, three main leaders were identified within the authors scanned on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram — one leader on each platform. These leaders received the highest amount of engagement and have many followers, which gives them the ability to influence public opinion.”
There are also allegations from sources familiar with the “Justice League” situation, who claimed Snyder made (not-so-veiled) threats behind the scenes, insinuating that he could manipulate his fans into doing his bidding. One instance involved Snyder’s desire to have Jon Berg and Geoff Johns removed from the “Justice League” re-edit credits. And when the producers didn’t respond to his request, he reportedly said, “Geoff and Jon are dragging their feet on taking their names off my cut. Now, I will destroy them on social media.”
One source said, “Zack was like a Lex Luthor wreaking havoc.” (This is a reference, of course, to Superman’s main villain in the comic books.)
Ultimately, whether or not it was partially fake or driven by the behind-the-scenes machinations of Zack Snyder, the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign worked. Warner Bros. originally said it would pay $30 million to make “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” happen, but the filmmaker was able to use his social media clout to get that number raised to a reported $73 million (more than $100 million after you include marketing). And though “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” wasn’t the world-changing hit that it was supposed to be (it did well, but not amazingly well on HBO Max), there’s really no hope for anything more from the filmmaker in regards to the DCEU. (Plus, if what Rolling Stone claims is true, then the filmmaker has definitely burnt some bridges.)
Alas, it doesn’t really matter anymore, as Snyder still commands a passionate fanbase and is able to direct it whenever possible. But he has moved his sights over to Netflix, as he is given carte blanche to make whatever original IP he wants at the streamer, including “Army of the Dead” and his upcoming sci-fi epic, “Rebel Moon.” However, there’s no denying just how historic #ReleaseTheSnyderCut has been, for better or worse, in terms of how social media can be used in Hollywood.