GoFundMe For “Snyder Cut” Promotion at Comic Con Raises Over $20,000

Remember Justice League? That movie that came out in November of 2017? No? Well these people certainly do.

The #ReleaseTheSnyderCut “movement” has evolved somewhat over the past year. Fans continued to create lengthy podcasts analyzing director Zack Snyder’s previous DC films and Snyder himself has certainly not calmed things as he liked multiple #ReleaseTheSnyderCut posts on the social media platform Vero, as well as shared some storyboard images for the film that didn’t reflect scenes in the theatrical cut.

And now it seems like Snyder fans are leaving twitter to go to San Diego Comic Con – or at least take out ads there. A small group of them tried something somewhat similar last year at WB’s studio lots in a picture that was ridiculed by some on social media.

Fans gathered in front of Warner Bros. HQ today to take a photo and ask them to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut pic.twitter.com/JQPxjVPQNu

— Batman-News.com (@BatmanNewsCom) January 6, 2018

But admittedly, as funny as that picture is, that group only consisted of thirteen people and was without thousands of dollars in donations.

A GoFundMe campaign titled “Project Comic-Con SDCC19 – ReleaseTheSnyderCut” has raised over $20,000 from over 300 donors within the past month. Yes, $20k.

Half of the money, the page says, will go to suicide prevention while half will go to various physical ads taken around San Diego meant to promote the release of “Zack Snyder’s cut” of Justice League.

Currently planned are a 2-hour airborne banner, a billboard, a half-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter‘s special Comic Con edition and a wrap-around bus stop banner. All of this in addition to “boots on the group” handing out #ReleaseTheSnyderCut flyers to Comic Con attendees and holding signs throughout the convention.

Ok, so this is a mock up of what the Bus Stop Wrap could look like IF we reach Level4 #ProjectComicCon (*Design not confirmed yet) Let’s make this happen today! RT/Share/Donate @RTSnyderCut @nexuspong big thanks to @RameshDeSilva2 our design chief. https://t.co/Zp3jFPilzk pic.twitter.com/KCFIyWQ2RN

— Will Rowlands (@willrowactor) June 11, 2019

All of this may sound like a joke but those donations appear quite real.

A senior Warner Bros. executive has told The Wall Street Journal last year that there were no plans to release any alternative version of the film. And one might think that after almost two years since Justice League‘s release, Snyder’s fans (and Snyder himself) would move on. But given the amount raised it seems like they aren’t planning to.

“The various members of our movement—from all walks of life, all races and creeds, all religious and political persuasions—have partaken in such efforts as hashtag trends, reply-bombing, phone calls, and letters. And little by little, we have gained the satisfaction of knowing that, at the very least, [Warner Brothers and AT&T] are aware of our cause. They know of our existence,” reads the page’s description.

The fundraiser was started over a month ago and the organizers expected Warner Bros. to attend Hall H at the convention. That changed on June 5, when it was announced that WB would skip this year at SDCC. But the organizers aren’t taken aback by the studio’s absence.

“Their lack of attendance only puts the spotlight on us with the DC/WB narrative.This campaign is to gain a wider audience and media attention for what happened to the Snyder’s and the untold unseen story,” wrote Bill Rowlands, the starter of the GoFundMe page, in an update.

The page’s description and the amount of money donated indicate that, even after two years, there appears no end in sight for die-hard Snyder Cut fanatics. “The time has come to make a big, bold declaration to Warner Brothers, and all who can see and hear, that we are not going away. We are not fading. We are growing. And as such, we need to prove it to them, by a big campaign that is impossible to ignore, shrug off, or otherwise dismiss.”

However over-the-top this language may sound, the organizers did promise to donate half of the money to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Snyder’s adopted daughter Autumn committed suicide in March of 2017, leading Snyder to leave the film and Avengers-director Joss Whedon to further overtake the project.

“I have been working with the fan base for Zack Snyder who have generously supported AFSP,” said the organization’s Director of Individual Giving, Ashly Alberto. “They have been supporting us for a while.”

Alberto says that she has spoken to the GoFundMe’s organizers and that previous T-Shirt fundraisers by fans and Snyder himself have raised more than $84,000 for AFSP. “We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of Snyder-fans and their partnership in building awareness.”

Will one billboard or bus stop ad somehow cause Warner Bros. to release additional footage from a two-year old movie? Regardless, it seems like plenty of people are willing to give their heard-earned money to try. And giving to charity certainly sounds better than “reply-bombing” twitter feeds.

San Diego Comic Con begins on Thursday, July 18 and will last until Sunday, July 21.

UPDATE: This article was updated on 06/14 with additional comments by AFSP.