Zack Snyder has one major film regret in his extensive years of working (Picture: AP)

Recently released from his duties as king of the DC Cinematic Universe, Zack Snyder isn’t slowing down as his new sci-fi epic Rebel Moon Part One hits Netflix.

From his fans clamouring for the four-hour Snyder Cut of Justice League to the upcoming multi-part Rebel Moon series, Zack has long established himself as a titan in the industry.

The 57-year-old director has an unmistakable style which has shaped blockbuster superhero movies over the past decade but also left him a somewhat polarising figure.

His filmography boasts high notes such as 2009’s comic book adaptation Watchmen or the Spartan epic 300 but also some less critically acclaimed moments.

Notably, the extremely divisive 2011 film Sucker Punch – starring American Gods’ Emily Browning, Hunger Games’ Jena Malone, and Disney’s Vanessa Hudgens – which Zack says is his biggest regret.

‘The original version would have been super controversial, it was super dark,’ he explained to Metro.co.uk, addressing the calls for his version of the movie.

Zack and his wife Deborah agree there’s one film they regret (Picture: Can Nguyen/Shutterstock)

Snyder’s next film is a sci-fi epic with multiple parts (Picture: Dave Benett/WireImage)

Zack and his wife – and long-time producer – Deborah agreed they deeply regretted caving to studio pressure to make the psychological thriller fit a PG-13 rating.

Deborah shared: ‘I regret that we did it PG-13 because it was originally R, we didn’t know how to pull it off from the budget and they were gonna give us more money if it was PG 13. I wish we would have figured that out because that’s my only regret.’

Sucker Punch follows a 20-year-old woman nicknamed Babydoll (Emily Browning) who is institutionalised in the 1960s after accidentally killing her sister.

At Lennox House for the Mentally Insane, Babydoll escapes into another world where she is newly arrived at a brothel, befriending Sweet Pea and Rocket, Amber, and Blondie.

Sucker Punch has a special place in fans’ hearts (Picture: Warner Br/Everett/Shutterstock)

The stacked cast couldn’t stop critics misunderstanding his vision (Picture: Warner Br/Everett/Shutterstock)

Attempting to escape with her friends, descends deeper into dreams as madness and action ensue – with our hero paying the price.

The ‘SnyderPunch cut’ has become the stuff of legend within the director’s fan base, with Zack hyping up the possibilities of it finally being made at every opportunity.

He continued: ‘It was the darkest thing ever but we didn’t care about that. We just cared about the fact that we couldn’t get close to it with the money that they would have given us for the R-rated version of it. That was the problem.’

The high-concept action epic, along with Batman Vs Superman, are the two films the Justice League director believes most ‘ran afoul’ of the critics with how they were received.

‘Sucker Punch is the one movie that I would say that universally is criticised in a way that misunderstands the entire premise of the movie – which is neither here nor there,’ Zack explained.

‘The movie is not being criticised for what it really is. It was criticised because people were like, wow, this is exploitative and it’s just a b******t genre movie and I was like, “Okay, well then I f**ked up because that’s not what that’s not it.”‘

He’s hoping his foray into science fiction might prove more popular with viewers as Rebel Moon Part One lands on Netflix this month, with a Star Wars meets Dune vibe.

The film sees Sofia Boutella take the lead role as Kora, with Charlie Hunnam, Ed Skrein and Sucker Punch’s Jena Malone – who looks unrecognisable.

Charlie Hunnam, Sofia Boutella and Ed Skrein star in new film Rebel Moon (Picture: James Shaw/Shutterstock)

Deborah can’t understand why their films are so polarising (Picture: Masatoshi Okauchi/Shutterstock)

Zack wrote the screenplay as well as directing – of course with Deborah as producer – and hopes fans love it as much as he does.

In response to his marmite reputation with fans and critics, Zack isn’t quite sure why people seem to have such strong reactions to his work and him personally.

He sighed slightly as he responded: ‘It just feels like a lot of emotional real estate to take up to hate someone.’

Deborah swoops in to champion her husband, defending him as she laughed: ‘Zack is genuinely the kindest person, he’s so much more kind than I am.

‘He also is just very genuine and I feel like that’s why we work with the same people over and over again. So I always find that reaction really harsh and I find sometimes the critics get very personal with him and I’m like why?

‘It’s very, very interesting and we don’t know the reason but it doesn’t make any sense.’

Zack added: ‘I’ve made peace with my relationship to the critics and the fans and how the work is viewed because, at the end of the day, I make it for myself. That’s the way I’ve always done it – I enjoy making it, I’m the one that has to watch it the most, I’m the one that has to live with it.’

Rebel Moon is streaming on Netflix from December 22.

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It’s ‘universally is criticised’ but misunderstood