Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Official HBO Max release date and international rollout plans revealed

A short while back, the dumbest rumour was making the rounds. Started by claims from scooper Grace Randolph (who has an incredibly spotty record with these things), the rumour was that Warner Bros. wanted to screw over Zack Snyder and thus would be releasing his long-awaited four-hour-long director’s cut of Justice League on HBO Max on the same day as Godzilla vs. Kong. Not a single aspect of the above claim made a lick of sense, but the internet loves to be angry at things – especially if those things are big Hollywood studios – so the vitriol gained some traction on social media. And it was all for nothing.

In an announcement made by Snyder himself on Friday, Justice League (which is now being aired as a single movie instead of a miniseries) has now been officially dated for release on HBO Max on Thursday, 18 March 2021. If you’re wondering if that is clashing with any kaiju, the answer is no. As we learned a few weeks back, Godzilla vs. Kong has been bumped forward and will hit HBO Max on 26 March, so there’s a whole eight days between the two blockbusters.

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Along with the release date, Snyder also debuted three new posters for the film and they all have self-serious titles, because of course they do. The first is titled “Fallen” and shows a shattered Justice League logo, the second is titled “Risen” and shows a tattered Justice League flag amidst some rubble, and the last is titled “Reborn” and shows an open film reel canister stamped with the Justice League logo and Snyder’s own name written on it. Oof! Can you be any more on the nose?

HBO Max is currently only available in the US as the newbie streaming service still needs to roll out worldwide, so will the rest of the world watch the filmmaker’s superhero magnum opus? Shortly after Snyder’s announcement, Warner Bros. put out a press release themselves, detailing the international release plans for Justice League.

Concurrent with the premiere on HBO Max in the U.S., the DC film will be available exclusively on HBO services in Europe across the Nordics, Central Europe, Spain, and Portugal as well as on the HBO GO service in Asia. In Latin America the title will premiere exclusively on HBO Max when the service launches in the region later this year. Details on additional international release dates and plans will be announced as soon as they are available.

1) HBO territories in the Nordic region – Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland
2) HBO territories in Central Europe – Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Poland, Montenegro and Croatia
3) HBO GO territories in Asia – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan

Now you may have noticed something missing there. There’s a not a single mention of the entirety of Africa, which leaves me a bit worried that we’re not going to be able to see this film. Weirdly, also not mentioned on that list is Canada. Surely, the United States’ northern neighbours would not be left in the cold?

It turns out they won’t be as a day or so after WB’s announcement, it was revealed that Canadian streaming service Crave will be airing Justice League. Crave’s parent company Bell has the exclusive Canadian rights to most original content to a number of US TV networks, including HBO.

In South Africa, Multichoice and subsequently Showmax has the same arrangement, so I’m really hoping that they will come through to get the local rights to Justice League as well. It’s still quite early, but I’ve dropped a mail to our contacts at Showmax and as soon as I get a definitive response, we will provide an update to you folks.

Last Updated: February 1, 2021