This has been an odd week or so for fans of Zack Snyder and the “Justice League” film. Not only do you have reports about production beginning (again) on extra scenes that the filmmaker is shooting for his upcoming HBO Max release of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” but there was also a big kerfuffle around the situation involving Ray Fisher and his claims of racism and abuse against Joss Whedon and producers of the film (head over here for the story and the fallout).
But then something else strange happened, HBO Max pulled all traces of the recently-released trailer for “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” from social media, without any reason given as to why the video was removed. Is the deal for the Snyder Cut dead? Did Zack Snyder have issues with the trailer? How did Joss Whedon figure out how to ruin this for Snyder fans too? (All three questions are ridiculous and silly, but definitely were mentioned at one point.)
Thankfully, we have Aaron Couch, of THR fame, to clear things up. You see, there’s no big conspiracy or behind-the-scenes drama. Apparently, Warner Bros. didn’t secure the rights to the music that is used in the trailer. Yep, a simple, though shocking oversight by the studio has led to a situation where Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is doing what Darkseid can’t—defeat the Justice League.
If you’ve seen the trailer (and we linked to one of the versions that is still live on YouTube, courtesy of IGN), you know that “Hallelujah” is the prominent music used throughout the trailer. As Snyder is known for, he’s taken a classic song and juxtaposed it with his slo-mo action. However, for some reason (and really, this is shocking), there are rights issues that are preventing the trailer from being seen. This is the sort of thing you expect from small YouTubers that don’t know much about copyright law or fair use, but definitely not something you expect from one of the largest studios in the world. But I digress.
Thankfully for Snyder Cut fans, it doesn’t appear this will affect the final film/TV series in the end. It just might make it more difficult for you to watch the trailer over and over again.