Gadot, Affleck show support for release of Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League

LOS ANGELES • Stars Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck have called for director Zack Snyder's cut of the DC movie Justice League to be released in cinemas.

The movie was released in cinemas in November 2017 with high hopes from fans, but the movie received mixed to negative reviews and performed below expectations at the box office.

Some fans attributed Justice League's lacklustre performance to Snyder leaving the big-budget superhero movie mid-way.

He stepped away from the project in May 2017 after the suicide of his daughter Autumn. The Avengers (2012) director Joss Whedon took over and Justice League was completed with extensive reshoots under the mandate to give the film a much lighter tone.

Since the disappointing performance of Justice League two years ago, there have been calls by fans for Warner Bros, which distributed the film, to release Snyder's original version of the movie, known as the Snyder Cut.

Earlier this month, actor Jason Momoa, who played Aquaman in the DC movies, stoked further interest in the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement when he released on his Instagram account a photo of his character stabbing Justice League's main antagonist Steppenwolf with his trident.

Momoa also said in an interview with MTV News that he has seen the Snyder Cut and that the public should see it too.

The online movement reached fever pitch on the second anniversary of the release of Justice League on Sunday, when its stars Gadot and Affleck expressed their support on social media.

Gadot, who played Wonder Woman/Diana Prince, wrote #ReleaseTheSnyderCut and posted a photo of Prince on her Twitter account.

Affleck, who played Batman, but has since been replaced by Robert Pattinson in the role in a new Batman standalone film, also wrote on his Twitter account #ReleaseTheSnyderCut.

Snyder has since retweeted both tweets, as he wrote, "This ancient Amazonian can't be wrong" for Gadot's tweet and "Neither can Batman".

However, sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Warner Bros has no immediate plans to release the Snyder Cut despite the online movement.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 19, 2019, with the headline Gadot, Affleck show support for release of Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League. Subscribe