Zack Snyder Says Warner Bros. Exec Admitted “You Were Right About Everything” After JUSTICE LEAGUE Snyder Cut Battle

Getting Zack Snyder’s Justice League released was a long, messy road, but the filmmaker eventually got something else out of the experience: a little vindication from inside Warner Bros.

Zack Snyder has once again opened up about his departure from DC and the battle surrounding his original version of Justice League. Years after leaving the film and watching the studio take it in a completely different direction, Snyder says an unnamed former Warner Bros. executive admitted that the director had been right.

Snyder originally directed Justice League before stepping away from the production. Joss Whedon was brought in to finish the movie, overseeing extensive reshoots and changes that resulted in the theatrical version released in 2017.

Snyder still hasn’t watched Whedon’s version, because his wife told him not to after she saw it. But after years of fan campaigning, Warner Bros. eventually gave him the opportunity to finish his own cut. Zack Snyder’s Justice League arrived on HBO Max in 2021, restoring his original vision as a four-hour superhero epic.

Speaking with Variety, Snyder recalled a conversation with a Warner Bros. executive that gave him some closure after everything that happened:

"There was this catharsis of, I met with this executive at Warner Bros. who's long gone since – I won't say who it was – and he said to me, 'You know, Zack, I've got to tell you one thing: You were right about everything.' And I was like, 'That's kind of you.' And he goes, 'We were fighting you, and in the end you were right.'"

That's a pretty wild conversation to have after spending years fighting to get your version of a movie released.

Reports from the time indicated that Warner Bros. wanted significant changes to Snyder’s original approach, including a shorter runtime and more humor. What ultimately emerged as the Snyder Cut went hard in the opposite direction, running roughly four hours and embracing the filmmaker’s darker, more expansive take on the DC heroes.

The response also differed considerably from what greeted the 2017 theatrical cut. Zack Snyder’s Justice League was the fourth-most-streamed movie of 2021, while its critical reception was notably more positive than Whedon’s theatrical version.

None of that erases how difficult the experience was for Snyder, but hearing a former Warner Bros. executive acknowledge that the studio had fought him only to later conclude he was right apparently offered the filmmaker some long-awaited catharsis.

Snyder discussed the experience while promoting his latest film, The Last Photograph, a passion project that takes him into different territory from the massive superhero and sci-fi productions he’s become known for.

The Last Photograph recently debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, though its first wave of reviews hasn’t exactly been kind.

Still, Snyder’s Justice League story remains one of the strangest chapters in modern superhero filmmaking. Now we know that somewhere along the way, at least one Warner Bros. executive looked Snyder in the eye and admitted, "We were fighting you, and in the end you were right."