The highly anticipated Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a thorough reworking of the 2017 film, is set for release on March 18th on HBO Max. However, some users reported gaining access to the film 10 days early by attempting to play the new family film Tom & Jerry. The Hollywood Reporter verified Twitter reports from users who said they selected Tom & Jerry to stream, but were instead served up the new version of Justice League, referred to by fans for years as “The Snyder Cut.”
While pausing the stream, THR noted that the HBO Max app displayed Tom & Jerry as the currently playing title, adding to assumptions that this was less an unconventional publicity stunt and more likely a technical error.
Sure enough, HBO Max confirmed the error later in the day, saying it was addressed shortly after being discovered. In the end, the accidental early release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League represents just another chapter in the film’s highly unusual road to premiere.
The original 2017 production experienced a number of setbacks, including the death of Snyder’s daughter, which led to the director leaving the film partway through the post-production phase. Joss Whedon was then brought on to see the film through the rest of production. Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in the film, also criticized Whedon’s treatment of the film’s cast and crew during his time as director.
Not long after the film originally released, fans started clamoring for a new version of the film — a so-called “Snyder Cut” that would, theoretically, more accurately represent what the original director had in mind. With the four-hour film set to debut on HBO Max next week, it’ll be interesting to see how the films turns out. And hopefully it doesn’t start with a CGI cat chasing a CGI mouse.