Ben Affleck Knows Exactly What Went Wrong With Zack Snyder's Theatrical Justice League

2021's "Zack Snyder's Justice League" was a fascinating experiment that at least gave the director the chance to reinstate his vision following the dire 2017 version of "Justice League." The story of how the director had to step away from production on the theatrical version before being replaced by Joss Whedon is well known. But suffice it to say Whedon's version of the movie was hardly a triumph. Now, with the DC Extended Universe (aka Snyderverse) having been replaced by James Gunn's DC Universe, former Batman actor Ben Affleck has some thoughts on what went wrong with DC's big team-up movie.

Speaking to Variety, the actor praised his "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Justice League" director. "I like Zack's cut a lot," he said. "I thought Zack did a great job. You hire a filmmaker, especially a filmmaker who has a very specific grammar and tone, you want to let them do that thing. Otherwise, they're probably not the right person to direct the movie." According to Affleck, however, there were "a lot of tensions around that movie" which ultimately led to a less than ideal outcome when "Justice League" hit theaters in 2017 and failed to hit its break even point with a $661.3 million worldwide take at the box office.

As Affleck sees it, discussions around "what version of the movie" was going to be released were the real issue. "[It's] a very bad way, in my opinion, to make a movie," he said. "Because it doesn't work well by committee, and I think that was a little bit of what happened on that movie."

Zack Snyder stepped away from "Justice League" following the tragic death of his daughter in 2017. Warner Bros. then brought in Joss Whedon, whose more light-hearted sensibility didn't exactly mesh with Snyder's gloomy vision for the DC Extended Universe team-up movie. When "Justice League" finally debuted in November 2017, it became very clear that Whedon's changes to the movie had not worked, and "Justice League" ultimately became the box office disaster that doomed the DCEU.

Following a social media campaign to "release the Snyder Cut," however, the director returned to deliver his original version of the film with "Zack Snyder's Justice League," which debuted on HBO Max in March 2021. Ben Affleck was glad to see it. "I think [Zack] kind of deftly navigated [that situation] in kind of a fun way that was very satisfying," he told Variety. "Particularly since that was a hard movie to do. It was really nice to see him, I think, feel gratified and get to do his version of the movie."

Elsewhere, in a separate Variety interview, Affleck reflected on the tone of the DCEU projects more generally. Asked whether he was glad to have starred in 2016's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," the actor said he "really liked" being a part of the project, adding, "That was really fun." But it seems he didn't have such fond memories of "Justice League," which Affleck said "had a lot of issues," and "wasn't that much fun, frankly." It's no secret the DCEU movies were a mixed bag, and struggled to establish a consistent tone. For Affleck, that was a big part of why the franchise fell apart.

The DC Extended Universe ended with several flops in 2023 that included the box office bomb of super-heroic proportions that was "The Flash." Ben Affleck's Batman appeared briefly in that same film, in a scene which speaks to the actor's point about the DCEU struggling to find the right tone. Speaking about both "Batman V Superman" and "Justice League," Affleck told Variety, "There was a sense of 'Oh, the movie was a little bit too dark or scary,' and it lost some of the younger audience. It seems to be an ongoing question, and I don't know the answer: Do you go all the way to a hard-R rating like 'Joker?' Or do it like Marvel, which does something broad, unless you're talking about 'Deadpool & Wolverine?'" 

Zack Snyder has spoken about how "Justice League" was on course to be ruined by a studio note that called for a more light-hearted tone — and this was before Joss Whedon came onboard. No doubt Warner Bros. intended to emulate the Marvel Cinematic Universe's success. But for Affleck, this issue goes back further than either "Justice League" or the MCU.

"The interesting thing with the DC characters [comes down] to the legacy of Frank Miller," the actor said in reference to the celebrated writer and artist behind the 1986 miniseries "The Dark Knight Returns." "There seems to be more tension between, 'Are we doing the grown-up version or the one that's open to kids?' There's a risk of being a feathered fish. It's something they're still navigating at DC." 

DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran are indeed navigating that issue, with the success of projects like "Superman" and "Lanterns" on one side and the financially disappointing "Supergirl" on the other. We'll see which column "Clayface" ends up in when that opens later this month.