With Zack Snyder’s Justice League having premiered on HBO Max, fans are still taking their time watching, dissecting and reviewing it. As that happens, Snyder has been doing a lot of press, including this far-ranging interview he did with The New York Times where he covered a lot of ground. Not all of it is revelatory stuff but the director did reveal his disdain for having fun at the expense of DC Heroes. On that note, he had this to say.

It’s obvious I take these characters and their mythology really seriously. I want them to be fully realized as characters, existing in thatworld. I don’t think that it’s cool to have fun at their expense. And there was a vision that we had, a complete universe, fully fleshed out,that we really wanted to take all the way.

Snyder had gotten wind that his relationship with Warner Bros. was on the verge of being soured since Batman v Superman released to a strongly negative reception. That got increasingly worse until the studio brought Joss Whedon as a writer and suggested turning up the humor a notch. Despite acknowledging Whedon’s talent, the director wasn’t too sure about spicing up the humor in his vision of the film.

There was a definitely a shift in confidence that they had, and I think that kept multiplying as we went along. They had this giant I.P.[intellectual property] and their confidence in my point of view had eroded.

It was a bit of a red flag. They were like, We think punching up the humor and doing some more fun stuff will be great. I was like, Hmm,I’m happy to shoot a scene if you guys have a good idea. We kicked around a bunch of different writers and they had come in with Joss.He’s a talented writer, no two ways about it. But I really didn’t see the point. And then when I was like, I’m done, I can’t do this, I feel likethey were volunteering Joss as the de facto finisher.

But of course, at the end, Snyder was thankful to HBO Max and the fans for making this unrealized vision of his cut possible. That The Snyder Cut is an official thing with a 4 hour running time is something that wouldn’t have been possible had Snyder fans not persisted with their continuous campaigning. Even the stars joined in at some point and Snyder recalls how he kept teasing the cut, at one point even suggesting that someone ought to leak it in some form.

Did I think there would ever be a version of this where the fans’ rallying cry got so loud that a big company like WarnerMedia would consider this as an option? Absolutely not. I thought maybe in10 years, there might be a DVD version where they might go, Hey, maybe it’s worth a couple dollars if we spruce up the Snyder cut.

Here’s his statement on when he thanks the parent company, the studio and the fans for making this a reality.

I appreciate that, I really do. This movie wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for HBO Max; I’m eternally grateful for them. And the viewing experience is still at a hugely high quality. It’s really up to your TV. It’s in the same aspect ratio as “First Cow.” Those two movies share some common DNA, I think. [Laughs.] I really did like “First Cow,” actually. I would love that in a double feature, “First Cow” and the Snyder cut of “Justice League.”

Zack Snyder’s Justice League ​is now available for streaming on HBO Max.