Creator Backlash / Justice League (2017)

It's safe to say that no creative involved liked the theatrically released final product, and that's an understatement.

• Joss Whedon apparently wasn't happy with how Steppenwolf turned out, as he liked a tweet that called him "the worst comic book movie villain of all time". Retrospectively, given how differently Steppenwolf is portrayed in Zack Snyder's Justice League, Whedon didn't like the changes he himself applied to the character. ^note It should be noted that he had no control over his design, which was set in place before he was hired. In a 2022 interview, Whedon admitted that agreeing to work on the film was one of the biggest regrets of his life.
• Ciarán Hinds was not happy that a lot of the work he put in didn't make it to the theatrical version, as Whedon scrapped much of Steppenwolf's character building and backstory.
• A number of people who worked on the film have expressed how disappointed they were that a large part of Snyder's work on the film was scrapped and replaced by Whedon's additions.
  • Cinematographer Fabian Wagner has openly stated he was disappointed with how the theatrical cut turned out and has expressed his wish to see Zack Snyder's version of the film (he reportedly cried when watching the theatrical version, and they were not Tears of Joy).
  • Ditto with Ben Affleck's stunt double Richard Cetrone, storyboard artist Jay Oliva, stuntman Nick McKinless, production designer Patrick Tatopoulos, photographer Clay Enos and actors Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, J. K. Simmons and Ciarán Hinds, among others.
  • They were later joined by Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck, who both tweeted "#ReleaseTheSnyderCut" on the second anniversary of the film's release date (they had remained utterly silent on the subject up to this point).
• Zack Snyder has gone on record to make jabs about how bad Henry Cavill's CGI-removed mustache looked (he didn't film said scenes) and note that the Russian family subplot was not part of his original cut ("Honestly, what Russian family?" was his response on that). He also admitted having never seen the version that was released in theaters. When talking about his upcoming Netflix-produced film Army of the Dead, Snyder said that he "had no handcuffs on this one" and that "the version you'll see will not be a bastardized one", no doubt referring to the Executive Meddling he had to face on Justice League. In May 2021, he revealed that, back in 2016, he had to shoot a scene with the League in a truck making quips while transporting Superman's coffin. He said it was "the worst thing I've ever seen", and didn't include it in his 2021 cut.
• In a video where he announced the shaving of his infamously troublesome mustache, Henry Cavill assured everyone that what they're seeing isn't CGI. The notorious screenshot of his mouth also flashed in the ending montage. In November 2019, he stated that "Justice League didn't work".
• When asked if he wanted to see Snyder's cut of the film, Jason Momoa said, "You know, it sucks in our business when you can't speak your mind, but... Yeah! Fuck yeah, I wanna see it!", and kept saying that he saw the original cut in interviews. Then in November 2019, he posted the much-relayed hashtag "#ReleaseTheSnyderCut" on his Instagram, accompanying a shot of Aquaman skewering Steppenwolf in front of Diana and a Boom-Tube. Momoa also wanted the "talk to fish" lines cut from the film, as he felt the tongue-in-cheek references to Aquaman's infamous reputation clashed with his and the production's attempts to make the character more badass.
• Ray Fisher hated having to say the line "Booyah!" for a scene in the reshoots, feeling it reduced Cyborg into a stereotypical black comedic relief character. His backlash was only furthered by how large parts of Cyborg's backstory and character arc got cut out of the theatrical version (all of which was restored in the "Snyder Cut" and went on to be one of the most well-received aspects of the movie), as well as the Hostility on the Set between him and Whedon, whom Fisher accused of abusing the cast and crew and creating a toxic work environment.
• Various other DCEU creative staff have expressed disappointment with how the production was handled and how the final movie turned out. This was partly because they developed their movies to pair with Justice League in an organic way only to see everything either get changed or removed altogether, and partly out of solidarity with Zack Snyder, who helped to get them hired and encouraged their vision. James Wan and Jason Momoa have said Aquaman picks up where Snyder's original version of the film ended, while Patty Jenkins said she barely recognized the characters who came from her movie (notably, Diana being more aggressive in the Whedon scenes). This is despite the Snyder version also having many contradictions with those films, such as Mera speaking in strange fish-noises underwater rather than simply speaking, and Diana being even more violent, such as killing more terrorists on-screen, complete with blood splatter on the walls.
• Producer Deborah Snyder (Zack's wife and co-manager of their production company) and executive producer Christopher Nolan (a good personal friend of the Snyders) both advised Zack to never watch this cut of the film, with Mrs. Snyder saying she was sure that seeing how much of it was changed would "break his heart."
• In an interview with Vanity Fair, Chris Terrio described what was done to his script and the film he and Snyder originally envisioned as "an act of vandalism", among making other shots at the Executive Meddling that plagued this movie and Batman v Superman.
• According to one anonymous WB exec, even the higher-ups did not like the end-product resulting from Whedon's reshoots and rewrites, even if they wouldn't vocally admit it.
  "When we got to see what Joss actually did, it was stupefying. The robber on the rooftop — so goofy and awful. The Russian family — so useless and pointless. Everyone knew it. It was so awkward because nobody wanted to admit what a piece of shit it was."
• Samantha Win took umbrage with Steppenwolf implying to the Amazons that he would turn them into sex slaves ("I will make you love me."), finding it inappropriate for a movie that was advertised for kids.
• In a 2022 interview with The L.A. Times, Ben Affleck said:
  It was really Justice League that was the nadir for me. That was a bad experience because of a confluence of things: my own life, my divorce, being away too much, the competing agendas, and then Zack's personal tragedy and the reshooting. It just was the worst experience. It was awful. It was everything that I didn't like about this. That became the moment where I said, "I'm not doing this anymore". It's not even about, like, Justice League was so bad. Because it could have been anything.
• In an interview with Variety for the release of Munich - The Edge of War, Jeremy Irons admitted that while he still hadn't seen the Snyder Cut version yet, he did agree that the theatrical cut was "dreadful".