MAX quietly removed the first official trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League from its YouTube channel for what was described as licensing issues, and now the film itself has been removed from the streaming service in one region.The official trailer of the alternate cut representing the director’s true vision boasted over 31 million views. However, Warner Bros.' feelings about Zack Snyder's Justice League are widely known, so some have speculated that the company may not like that this was MAX's most viewed video, though the trailer was previously delisted in November 2020 over music rights issues until the matter was resolved shortly after, which could happen again. While other Zack Snyder'sJustice League promos remain on the Max YouTube channel, some argue licensing issues wouldn’t explain why the specific one they removed is still up on other channels. Even so, this appears to have escalated even further with the entirety of Zack Snyder's Justice League being taken down from the MAX streaming service in one region.Fans in the region have stated that Zack Snyder's Justice League was taken down from MAX Europe, despite still being available in other parts of the world on the streaming service. Users report that when they try to search for the movie, only the studio cut of Justice League by Joss Whedon appears, which is remembered for toxic behavior on set and having butchered Snyder's vision in various reshoots instigated by WB after the director had to step away due to an unforeseen family tragedy. Following the Europe MAX removal of Zack Snyder's Justice League, the physical copy climbed to the top 3 bestsellers in Brazil, as limiting supply may have created higher demand.
There has been much speculation about what is happening. Rumors suggest this was done by the new separate division, DC Studios, under James Gunn and Peter Safran (who are steering away from the Snyderverse in the DC Universe reboot) rather than Warner Bros. Discovery. However, assuming it was removed to create more demand for the physical copies, it could also be a strategy by WBD to instigate more revenue by using controversy to plummet its stocks just for people to buy in before rising again. Either way, there may be more to the motivations for removing the film since there doesn’t appear to be any correlation between having to remove the trailer for a licensing issue and the film's removal from MAX Europe.
Using Zack Snyder's Justice League as a motive for this business strategy can be seen as a ruthless move by the company, seeing as how WB is arguably responsible for the division in the DC fan base. Hopefully, it is all a misunderstanding that will be cleared up. If not, it may be a good idea for fans to own a physical copy of Zack Snyder's Justice League, in case this is just the beginning of the company erasing the movie from its history altogether.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is available in some regions on MAX and in physical form.
Source: ScreenRant