Zach Snyder To Step Away From The Justice League Movie

Now before anybody goes on a tear saying that this is just one more setback for the DCEU movies, and just another director leaving a project due to studio conflicts, back up.  Zach Snyder is in fact leaving the Justice League movie, but it's because of a family tragedy that took place back in March.  Snyder's daughter commit suicide, and instead of announcing it to the world, he wanted time to grieve and to give him and his family private time to mourn their loss without the worry of people pestering him for comments or reactions.  It's been tough for the director, and he finally came out with a statement to address his leaving:


“In my mind, I thought it was a cathartic thing to go back to work, to just bury myself and see if that was way through it. The demands of this job are pretty intense. It is all consuming. And in the last two months I’ve come to the realization …I’ve decided to take a step back from the movie to be with my family, be with my kids, who really need me. They are all having a hard time. I’m having a hard time.”


Who can blame him?  Nobody should have to go through anything like this.


With Snyder stepping away, Warner Brothers and DC have handed the reigns to the movie over to Joss Whedon (yes, the same Joss Whedon that directed the first two Avengers movies) while dealing with reshoots and post production for the film.  This will obviously add a lot more to Whedon's plate than I'm sure he was expecting after signing on to direct the upcoming Batgirl movie, but he's actually already been involved with the Justice League movie, even before Snyder decided to walk away.  Snyder asked Whedon to help with some of the rewrites for the reshoots, so the two have been on the same page as far as where they want this movie to go for some time now.


It can't hurt DC and WB's project having a name like Joss Whedon attached to it, so it's nice to know that it's been left in good hands.  And Mr. Snyder?  We are all sorry for the loss of your daughter. Thoughts and prayers, my friend.