The news finally arrived yesterday: The Snyder Cut of Justice League is officially on the way to HBO Max, with the legendary director’s edition of the DC team-up movie set to arrive on the streaming service sometime in 2021. Fans are excited to see the filmmaker’s original vision, but it also offers up the hope of being a better final outing for Ben Affleck’s Batman than the theatrical cut was.
As you’d expect, then, Affleck stands behind Snyder and has reacted to the announcement on social media. The Batman V Superman star shared the movie’s poster on his Twitter account and offered up a one-word yet loaded caption: “2021.” That was enough to go viral, with his tweet sitting at 8.3k retweets at the time of writing.
2021. @ZackSnyder. @HBOMax. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut pic.twitter.com/SxAhzazIRb
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) May 21, 2020
Affleck was initially a controversial choice to play the Dark Knight, but like pretty much every actor to don the cape and cowl, he ended up winning over fans. Unfortunately, a variety of factors, including the limited success of his DC films and problems in his personal life, contributed to him giving up the role just two movies (and a bit, including his Suicide Squad cameos) in.
His screentime in Justice League was a particular disservice to Affleck, as his character was not well-suited to the theatrical cut’s quippy dialogue or comedic tone. But presumably we can expect the Snyder Cut to take the Batfleck back to something closer to his depiction in BvS. Remember, the cast may even return to provide some fresh material for the new JL, even if it’s just in the form of ADR.
For Batman fans, 2021 is now a mind-blowing year as we’ve got two Bat-movies coming starring two different Bat-actors, though we don’t currently know whether Justice League or The Batman will arrive first.