Ever since director Zack Snyder dropped out of completing Justice League due to a family tragedy, people have wondered just how much of a role Joss Whedon would be taking as he stepped in to complete the film. He already made a couple big decisions, such as firing composer Junkie XL and replacing him with Danny Elfman, and directing the reshoots that took place over the summer. He also helped write some of these additional scenes prior to Snyder’s departure.
Despite the few changes Whedon has done, Snyder remains the only credited director on the film and the cast has long said Whedon’s involvement was fairly limited compared to what they went through during principal photography. At the Justice League press event in London today, star Ben Affleck and producers Deborah Snyder and Charles Roven opened up a bit about just how much Whedon’s involvement was in the film.
“People don’t understand how much of the film is designed in pre,” Affleck said. “I found as a director you can maybe change 10 percent, 15 percent on the day. We really had Zack’s ship set sail for us. We were fortunate in that when Zack was unable to continue, we got a guy who. I got the sense that Joss was working from what he had discussed with Zack before he stepped in.”
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Deborah Snyder, who is Zack’s wife as well as a producer for Snyder’s DC films, said “For us, this whole thing is so bitter sweet because we have been working on this franchise for the past almost eight years. And then we moved on to Batman v Superman and also Zack developed the story for Wonder Woman which was leading up to the point of Justice League. Not being able to complete his vision was extremely difficult. That makes it hard but we were lucky that we had Joss already working on script pages. Our feeling is we hope people don’t think about how the movie was made because these characters are bigger than any director.”
“It’s been a great privilege and fun to work with Zack and Debbie and all of the actors in the various films,” Roven added. “It’s been, actually in a wonderful way, a great learning experience, and great life experience. Not to have Zack there, to have Joss come in, he was already working with Zack, and we’re just really happy with the movies and how great these characters are, infused by this talent.”
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Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Justice League will reunite Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice stars Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta and Robin Wright as General Antiope alongside J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) as Commissioner Gordon, Amber Heard (The Danish Girl) as Mera, Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) as Vulko, Kiersey Clemons (Dope) as Iris West, Ciaran Hinds (Game of Thrones) as Steppenwolf, and Julian Lewis Jones (Stella) and Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones) in as-yet-unrevealed roles.
Originally published November 4, 2017. Updated April 18, 2018.
