Credit: HBO Max

The movie will be released as it was originally intended.

Before Joss Whedon was brought on as the director of 2017’s Justice League, the original director was Zack Snyder. Snyder put in some pretty extensive work on the film, but after the death of his daughter, he was forced to step away from the production. Whedon was tapped to get the films through rewrites, editing, and post-production, though as a result, the overall tone of the movie was lightened. A lot of fans weren’t happy about this, as they wanted the more intense film that was advertised, and have been clamoring ever since for a “Snyder Cut.” Extremely vocal groups, some nice, some not so nice, have popped up all over the place, prodding Warner Bros. for the film’s original cut with petitions and threats. It seems Warner Bros. has finally gotten tired of it, because they’ve officially given the green light.

Credit: Warner Bros.

Snyder himself announced yesterday that the original cut of Justice League would be coming to HBO Max as an exclusive some time in 2021. “I want to thank HBO Max and Warner Brothers for this brave gesture of supporting artists and allowing their true visions to be realized. Also a special thank you to all of those involved in the SnyderCut movement for making this a reality,” his statement read.

Of course, actually getting the original cut of the movie to a watchable state is easier said than done. The Snyder Cut is nearly four hours long, which means releasing it as a gigantic film, or a multi-part miniseries. All of the work that will need to go into the cut to get it ready for primetime, including re-editing, scoring new music, and adding and altering visual effects, will cost anywhere from $20 to $30 million.