The news of director Zack Snyder leaving the “Justice League” film due to his daughter’s suicide shocked fans in the comicbook entertainment world. Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter delivered the grim news on May 22, 2017 that director Zack Snyder and his wife Deborah Snyder, who was also producer, were stepping down from post-production of “Justice League.”
Years later, Zack Snyder has now candidly revealed his driving reason in an inclusive interview with Sean O’Connell for his forthcoming tell-all book covering the journey of the famed “Release The Snyder Cut” (RTSC) fan community movement.
“I just was kind of done with it. I was in this place of [knowing] my family needs me more than this bullshit, and I just need to honor them and do the best I can to heal that world.”
Zack Snyder
The director added that he had no energy left to fight for his vision for the film after the heart-breaking tragedy and loss he experienced. In those extraordinary and sobering circumstances, Zack Snyder was absolutely right to step down from post-production of the “Justice League.”
In his initial statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder had said, “I’ve decided to take a step back from the movie to be with my family, be with my kids, who really need me.”
The decision to step down from filming a major project was an incredibly brave decision on the director’s part and revealed vulnerability to the world by publicly making the announcement of his heavy decision.
In this difficult case, the mantra of ‘The show must go on!’ is shown to not always apply. Zack Synder appropriately put his role as father before his work role as film-maker. His daughter, Autumn Snyder, was just 20-years-old when she passed away after her battle with mental health. In upending moments like these, all the rest of the world becomes trivial, and what matters most is coping and comforting close contacts of family and friends.
As part of their press release to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. enlisted Joss Whedon of “Avengers” fame to finish the post-production on the “Justice League” film. Whedon replaced the music composer Junkie XL with Danny Elfman, a move that was roundly derided, as Elfman’s last-minute score was considered to not be up to snuff. The post-production headache laid the seeds of many issues that would surface later, including the film’s lackluster box office performance and legacy. On July 1st, 2020, Ray Fisher strongly condemned several Warner Bros. figures including replacement director Joss Whedon, comicbook writer Goeff Johns, and producer Jon Berg for gross mistreatment during the post-production of “Justice League”.
After the critical disappointment of the theatrical version of “Justice League,” many fans who expected what they were marketed from the trailers took to social media to demand that Warner Bros. release Zack Syder’s director’s cut of the film, with the hashtag
[…] who plays Cyborg in the film, the issue is no longer about what happened on the set in 2017 after Director Zack Snyder was replaced by Joss Whedon, though he’s ready to explain that, too. He had been vocally tweeting about how the […]