Will the Snyder cut appear on HBO Max?

[The Dark Knight]

I don't really cotton to For Tomorrow. I suppose it can be riffed upon in a sequel to MOS but I don't especially care to see the full story adapted.

Agree. Amazing art, but nothing spectacular as a story.

It's hard to guess what a sequel should be or do. Threats from Krypton seem to have been mined well enough for the time being.

I don't think that should be a problem. BvS's creation of Doomsday is similar in spirit to a character like Bizarro. At the core, Lex and the mainstream media were the villains. Brainiac arriving in a friendly manner, as opposed to Zod in MoS, could be a nice contrast to keep things fresh. Something like S:TAS, basically.

[The Laughing Fish]

First teaser trailer is out. Its not much, but I'm glad we're finally getting to see Darkseid in motion.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/heat-vision/zack-snyder-unveils-first-teaser-his-justice-league-cut-1299193

[thecolorsblend]

To save everybody a completely unnecessary click:

[The Dark Knight]

Good tease. Apart from a trailer, I'm also hoping we get:

1. The release date
2. The release format

I'm hoping for a movie rather than a miniseries, to fit in more cleanly with MoS and BvS.

But it's not something that's bothering me that much at all. The excitement of getting this movie at all outweighs anything.

With ZSJL, The Batman and surely the new Batman game announced at Fandome, we have a 2021 smorgasbord lined up. Contract rumblings about Cavill have been heard recently - as usual expect nothing, but such an event would be a good place to make an announcement.

[thecolorsblend]

Good tease. Apart from a trailer, I'm also hoping we get:

1. The release date
2. The release format

I'm hoping for a movie rather than a miniseries, to fit in more cleanly with MoS and BvS.

But it's not something that's bothering me that much at all. The excitement of getting this movie at all outweighs anything.

With ZSJL, The Batman and surely the new Batman game announced at Fandome, we have a 2021 smorgasbord lined up. Contract rumblings about Cavill have been heard recently - as usual expect nothing, but such an event would be a good place to make an announcement.

I'm starting to wonder that there's some sort of civil war going on right now between AT&T and WB. A sort of one-sided civil war. There have been strategic leaks about The Batman (coincidentally right as production is about to resume), there's gossip about PC recasting for Superman (Michael B. Jordan or John Boyega, of course) and other things.

This is the passive-aggressive stuff one might do if one is trying to "subtly" undermine a rival. Except AT&T ain't no rival, they're the parent company and they probably don't go in for silly Hollywood nonsense like this.

It's like WB hasn't fully accepted the fact that they're somewhat servants of AT&T's will.

To your point tho, yeah, I would prefer a feature film format for ZSJL too. And for the same reasons, I might add. But that's probably the opposite of AT&T's business strategy. And whatever, more power to them for even having a business strategy in this topsy-turvy media environment. It's just a relief to be getting anything at all, frankly. We Snyderverse fans are not greedy.

[Silver Nemesis]

I always thought Molasar's final form in Michael Mann's The Keep (1983) offered a good template for what a live action Darkseid should look like.

I like to imagine this ^ is the eighties Darkseid that Reeve and Keaton might have faced off against.

[thecolorsblend]

Me as well.

On that note, that ties in with a concern I have about ZSJL. Very often, creators who don't understand what Darkseid is all about will show him duking it out with others. From the looks of things, ZSJL is headed in that direction.

And that's where I have to get off the bus. If you want to show Superman (or whoever) beating the snot out of an intergalactic despot, use Mongul. That's pretty much his entire reason for being anyway. He's a thug with ambitions far beyond his actual abilities.

But Darkseid ain't no brawler. He deals in blackmail, conspiracies, secrets, schemes, infiltration, agents of agents of agents, etc. He wouldn't sully himself with combat in 99% of cases. He has people on the "payroll" for that. Female Furies, parademons and other lackies. They can fight it out with the commoners while His Lordship Darkseid stays above the fray, away from those heroic peasants and beggars.

Darkseid's got 99 problems but one of them isn't beating somebody else up. If he must take direct action himself, well, that's what the Omega Effect is supposed to be about.

Darkseid is scary af. The mere presence of his astral projection was enough to bring the entire freaking Legion Of Super-Heroes to their knees that one time. He's the physical embodiment of darkness and evil. Simply being around him is terrifying and enough to give most people PTSD or something. He doesn't need to kick people around to dominate them.

But it looks like ZSJL will turn Darkseid into something like a brawler. And maybe that's inevitable if you're making a film. I wouldn't know. I'm just saying that there's a purity to Darkseid as a character that the vast majority of creators don't know a damn thing about and nearly always miss because they want to show Superman fighting it out with somebody.

Oddly enough, Smallville pretty well nailed it considering TV's limitations. Smallville's Darkseid was a fearsome presence kind of like Sauron in a way. He doesn't need to wreck shop on anybody for you to understand he means business.

I hope (but am not sure) that Snyder takes the character in that direction.

[Silver Nemesis]

I can't say I disagree.

I view Darkseid as the DC universe's answer to the Dark Lord archetype common in fantasy fiction. The Dark Lord is meant to be the satanic 'big bad' who sits on his throne commanding the powers of darkness and sending his underlings to perform his evil bidding. Morgoth and Sauron would take to the battlefield once every few centuries, to establish their dominance and demonstrate the godlike strength and power at their disposal, but most of the time they lurked in their fortresses and sent their armies to do their dirty work. They could stomp their enemies in one-on-one combat if they wanted to, as demonstrated when Morgoth slew Fingolfin, or when Sauron almost killed Isildur, but most of the time they chose not to. They were so powerful they didn't need to dirty their hands.

The same applies to the Dark Lords in Star Wars. One of the things that made the Sith so intimidating in the Original Trilogy was that they didn't resort to physical brutality to kill most of their victims. Vader only ever drew his lightsaber for Kenobi or Luke. Most of the time he simply killed his victims by Force choking them. During the Battle of Hoth, he calmly strolled through the Rebel base with his hands at his sides, as though he didn't care if the enemy soldiers shot at him. If they made that sequence today they'd show Vader deflecting laser bolts with his lightsaber, but the fact he didn't do that in 1980 was more intimidating. It meant he wasn't scared of traditional weapons, that ordinary soldiers posed no threat to him. Palpatine, the ultimate Dark Lord of the Sith, never even used a lightsaber in the OT. I always imagined he could if he wanted to, but was so powerful he didn't have to.

Darkseid should be treated in a similar manner to these other characters. His power is so immense he can literally wipe someone from existence simply by looking at them. So I agree that he shouldn't be depicted as a brawler who regularly engages in punch ups. That said, I'd be ok with him being physically defeated in combat... eventually. The problem is, once you've shown him get physically overthrown, there's nowhere else to go with the character. He's no longer the apex predator he was before he was beaten. For this reason I'd be totally on board with them never showing him fight in the DCEU, or at least only showing him fight once at the very end of his story arc. The cinematic Skeletor in Masters of the Universe (1987) was heavily influenced by Darkseid, and I like how his use of power was depicted. He spends most of the film sitting on his thrown, annihilating people with his magic, and only finally engages in psychical combat during his showdown with He-Man at the end of the movie.

Nowadays every CBM has to end with a formulaic CG battle scene that drags on for forty minutes. But there were quite a few older CBMs in which the final confrontation was verbal or cerebral. This might be preceded by a battle scene, or a fight between the hero and one of the villain's henchmen, but the final showdown between the protagonist and their nemesis was not necessarily conducted with brute force. There's no fight at the end of Superman: The Movie or Superman III. The third act of Flash Gordon includes a spectacular battle scene, but the final confrontation between Flash and Ming is verbal. Batman Returns features a very brief fight between Batman and Penguin, but the remainder of the finale takes the form of dialogue. Other than Robin's skirmish with Two-Face, there's no major fight scene at the end of Batman Forever. The final confrontation with Two-Face at the end of The Dark Knight is also mostly verbal. Now don't get me wrong – I love a good fight scene, particularly when it's executed with practical effects and stunt work. But sometimes it's more interesting to see the central conflict resolved in a non-violent manner. And that's especially true if you have a central threat whose capabilities transcend brute force.

Perhaps this is the approach they should take with Darkseid. Have the heroes defeat his underlings in physical combat, but keep the final showdown with Uxas cerebral. I know they won't do this, since every DCEU film ends with a prolonged fight scene. Which is what most viewers want to see, I guess. But it would be a pleasant surprise if the writers came up with something more creative. I'm thinking of something like The Exorcist III (one of the most underrated horror films ever, btw) where the villain remains seated for the duration of the finale. And yet he wields unfathomable power and is somehow all the more terrifying for his lack of animation.

Imagine a showdown with Darkseid that played out like this. It could be Batman or Superman that's immobilised before his power and has to call on their intelligence to defeat him. A three or four minute long sequence like that would be far more intense and emotionally engaging than a thirty minute punch up. At least I think it would.

[The Dark Knight]

Morgoth and Sauron would take to the battlefield once every few centuries, to establish their dominance and demonstrate the godlike strength and power at their disposal, but most of the time they lurked in their fortresses and sent their armies to do their dirty work. They could stomp their enemies in one-on-one combat if they wanted to, as demonstrated when Morgoth slew Fingolfin, or when Sauron almost killed Isildur, but most of the time they chose not to. They were so powerful they didn't need to dirty their hands.

At least in terms of ZSJL this seems to the the template. Snyder said the Darkseid we see in the teaser is a baby version, and when we see him many years later through the boomtube he's the fully formed beast. Darkseid could think I've stomped ants before, so I may as well stretch my legs and do it again. If we actually ever get to see that happen, of course.

[The Laughing Fish]

At the time of writing, that teaser trailer has gained nearly 2 million views on YouTube and even trended in the top 30 videos. That's quite impressive for a trailer that was released only a couple of days ago.

It's that sort of hype that justifies HBO Max's confidence in ZSJL, as you can see when one of its key executives was asked about the announcement.

The Hollywood Reporter: You made a big splash with the announcement that you'd be releasing Zack Snyder's director's cut of Justice League. Should other filmmakers expect — or will they demand — the same treatment?

Sarah Aubrey [HBO Max's Head of Content]: I don't worry about it opening up a Pandora's box. It's not going to be one size fits all. [As for the Snyder cut,] I think it's already a success given the press we've had around it.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hbo-maxs-content-head-delaying-friends-reunion-taking-netflix-pandemic-1296765

Nonetheless, let's not rest on our laurels. It's still important for the fans from all over the world to make sure they subscribe to the relevant streaming service come release date. HBO Max will begin a roll out in most international markets, but I heard it won't be available in places like Canada and Australia, because other streaming services already have the contract to show all HBO/WB related content. The fans in those countries will need to make sure they know which service is screening ZSJL and subscribe.

Now that Snyder is given more money to finish the effects and additional photography, I wonder if he's going to change back to the original Steppenwolf design?