Zack Snyder’s Justice League was accidentally leaked on HBO Max yesterday, 9 March due to a technical glitch.
The four-hour cut from filmmaker Snyder that’s slated to premiere on 18 March, temporarily played on the streaming platform for users who chose to watch the Tom & Jerry (released on 26 February) movie. The incident came into attention when many users took to social media to report that the highly-anticipated Snyder-cut version played instead of the animated film.
The accidental debut was reportedly available for almost an hour before it was taken down from the platform. Deadline reported that HBO Max confirmed the error in a statement. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League was temporarily available on HBO Max and the error was addressed within minutes,” the WarnerMedia owned streaming service said.
Justice League star Ray Fisher, who plays Cyborg in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), took to Twitter to urge fans to refrain from watching the leaked version and watch it on the day of release streaming all day long.
Zack Snyder, who has been actively promoting the film on his social media accounts, and the rest of the League members are yet to comment on the leak.
Surprisingly, one of the fan pages on Facebook claimed : “WB leaked Zack Snyder Justice League last night on HBO MAX & Zack Snyder had to call up AT&T to let them know of this sabotage. HBO MAX employee who worked under Geoff Johns and Toby Emmirch replaced the Tom & Jerry movie file with Zack Snyder’s Justice League…WB will literally do anything to make this movie fail. It is now only upto the fans to strike back.”
However, this accusation does not seem quite trustworthy as no other official sites have claimed such reports and in the comments section of the post as well, the movie’s aficionados aren’t ready to buy this information.
Originally released in 2017, Justice League was directed by Snyder who had to step down during the post-production stage owing to a family tragedy. The director’s duty was then passed to The Avengers director Joss Whedon. Eventually, the movie left fans disappointed who began petitions demanding for the ‘SnyderCut’ of the movie.
After much campaigning, Warner Bros. announced that Zack Snyder’s Justice League will release on HBO Max, starring Ben Affleck (Batman), Henry Cavill (Superman), Gal Gadot(Wonder Woman), Ezra Miller (The Flash), Jason Momoa (Aquaman) and Ray Fisher (Cyborg).
The hype around the movie was amplified by the teasers and trailers that have been released. In addition, fans got more excited after Snyder started sharing photos and videos from the upcoming release. Fans have already drawn parallels with the original release and found differences in both versions.