Some HBO Max subscribers were in for quite a shock Monday evening when they decided to watch Warner Bros.‘ new Tom & Jerry movie. Instead of the family film playing, they saw parts of the new Zack Snyder‘s Justice League film instead. The four-hour movie, which presents an alternate version of 2017’s Justice League, is not supposed to be released on HBO Max until March 18.
The major blunder came to light when Twitter user Doug Bass of Charlotte, North Carolina shared a photo of his television with Justice League playing. “Someone’s getting firedโฆTom and Jerry this is not,” Bass wrote. He later told The Hollywood Reporter he saw the first hour of Justice League before the movie suddenly ended. He went back to play the movie, but Tom & Jerry played instead, as it should have from the beginning. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League was temporarily available on HBO Max, and the error was addressed within minutes,” an HBO Max representative told ComicBook.com.
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@hbomax someoneโs getting firedโฆTom and Jerry this is notโฆ#SnyderCut pic.twitter.com/B0ReNp2JR2
โ Doug (@ThenDougSaid) March 8, 2021
Bass was not the only person to report the mistake, so it was not an isolated blunder. THR journalist Ryan Parker also attempted to play Tom & Jerry and encountered an error message first, then Justice League began. When you paused the movie, the screen said you were watching Tom & Jerry.
The new cut of Justice League is an attempt from director Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. to present a version of the 2017 film that audiences may have seen if he finished it at the time. Snyder and his wife, producing partner Deborah Snyder, left the project after their daughter, Autumn Snyder, died in May 2017. The Avengers director Joss Whedon took over, made several changes and the released movie ran just 120 minutes. Although it made $657.9 million, it was considered a box office disappointment and it received mostly negative reviews. Fans were also disappointed, and have been waiting for years to see what a complete Snyder cut of the film would be like. In 10 days, they will finally get to see that.
โ Ryan Parker (@TheRyanParker) March 8, 2021
In a recent interview with IGN, Snyder said the new movie is “essentially the same movie” he was trying to make in 2017. He said there were plans to make an even longer movie in 2016, but he and editor David Brenner did some “tightening and put the screws to it a little bit more to get it close to four hours.” The version audiences will see on March 18 will be in color, but Snyder said there is a “Justice is Grey” edition that will be released to HBO Max in the future. He also wants to see the movie get an IMAX release after the coronavirus pandemic.