‘Justice League’ seemed called to be the film with which the superhero universe of DC take that step forward that was missing to be able to compete you to you with Warner. The reality was very different, since she was plagued with problems long before she hit theaters, but the point of no return was the abandonment of Zack Snyder after the death of his daughter when he was immersed in the post-production process. Years later he would explain that there were more reasons that led him to leave her aside.
It didn’t measure up at the box office.
Warner hired Joss Whedon to replace Snyder, who had to reshoot quite a few scenes, retouching in a more than remarkable way the vision of the film that the director of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ had. The truth is that there were already clashes between the studio and the filmmaker during filming, since ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ had not been the bombshell that the producer expected.
It cannot be said that they managed to conquer the public in this way, since their performance at the box office was far from expected, to the point that it was commented that, despite achieving a worldwide collection of 657 million dollars, Warner had lost 60 million with her.
Complaints soon arose from fans, who wanted to see the film with the montage that Snyder had in mind. The director himself would confirm its existence some time later, while Warner took advantage of the launch of the streaming platform. hbo max to provide the necessary financing to make it a reality, although then it cannot be said that ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ was a great success. However, the ‘Justice League’ sequel was basically dead by then.
Snyder himself revealed what his plans were last year, but the Snyderverse was already officially dead at that point. But the problems came much earlier, as Warner had already postponed the premiere of ‘Justice League 2’ before the first hit theaters. However, he continued to work on it for a time, although even then hinting that Snyder would not direct it. Something that they would affirm directly shortly before the premiere of ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’
Warner’s change of strategy
The enormous success of ‘Wonder Woman’ the same year as the premiere of ‘Justice League’ and ‘Aquaman’ in 2018 led Warner to the conclusion that it was better for them to bet on solo adventures. Another nail in the coffin of ‘Justice League 2’, to which we must add the abandonment of Ben Affleck as Batman. It is true that the actor later agreed to return to the character for a secondary role in ‘The Flash’, but everything points to a definitive farewell to his incarnation of the DC superhero.
With Warner reorienting its way of handling these superheroes -shortly after they would also begin to give the green light to films outside the DC Extended Universe, such as the recent ‘The Batman’-, with Affleck gone and the future of henry cavill As Superman turned into a complete unknown -the actor has made it clear that he wants to continue playing him, but the studio does not seem to be so clear-, ‘Justice League 2’ is little short of impossible.
At least it is understanding it as a sequel to the film that we could see in 2017, which is the one that Warner considers to be part of the DCEU canon. That in the future there will be a new adventure of the Justice League with several of the participants of that one is something that should not be ruled out –charlie roven, producer of DC Films, stated last year that it was a possibility, but that at least several years would have to pass if it were to be done. But it would be something different without connection to a film that aspired to touch the sky and ended up sunk in hell.