When Zack Snyder left the production of Justice League, everyone close to production claimed Joss Whedon was merely completing the film Snyder started, but it turns ot the movie saw significant changes in reshoots, overhauling the movie’s story and appearance. While many of these changes were readily apparent in the movie itself, which has been dubbed a “franksenstein project,” a number of leaks and other reveals in the year since have revealed that the changes were even more significant.
A conservative estimate says 30 minutes of Justice League’s theatrical cut is a product of Whedon’s reshoots. Assuming a fans are calling for a Snyder Cut of the movie.
There’s been much debate over whether or not a Snyder Cut exists, but Snyder completed 100% of principal photography before he left and storyboard artist Jay Oliva and Cyborg actor Ray Fisher both say he got all the footage he needed for a complete cut, meaning the question of the Snyder Cut’s level of completion is dependent on how far into post-production he was.
Regardless, Warner Bros. currently has no plans to release the movie, so fans could have to wait a few years for the Snyder Cut to finally be completed and released, like the Donner Cut of Superman II or the Blade Runner Final Cut.
In the meantime, here’s all the confirmed changes to the movie. Numerous minor tweaks, snips, dialogue inserts, and other little changes have been made, and countless more have been speculated or rumored, so it’ll be almost impossible to chronicle every single tiny difference. The focus here will be on the more significant changes, revealing what Zack Snyder’s Justice League was supposed to look like, sound like, and be about.
Junkie XL Was Replaced by Danny Elfman
The first sign of trouble after Whedon took over Justice League was the departure of the film’s original composer, Tom Holkenborg, AKA Junkie XL. After collaborating with Hans Zimmer on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Junkie was all set to take the reigns for Justice League.
His work is known for bearing a strong electronic influence with heavy drums. He was classic DC themes for Batman and Superman, his score lacked the gravitas that defined the previous movies in the franchise.
Junkie XL confirmed in an interview with Screen Rant that his score for Justice League is completed.
Steppenwolf's Design Was Changed From The One in Batman v Superman
One of the most notable changes happened during pre-production, and that’s the overall early pre-viz of some scenes with the old Steppenwolf designes, those aren’t actually for use in the film, they’re basically digital storyboards to help visualize action scenes in pre-production. The actual VFX made for the end product starts from scratch again.
There’s behind the scenes footage from during pre-production where concept art for the new version can be glimpsed on the wall. The change in design likely happened early enough that it was before the release of Batman v Superman, and it could have been early enough to influence in the decision to cut the Steppenwolf scene in that movie.
The Parademon's Hate the Siren and Smell Fear
One of the first scenes in the movie made a change that also tied through the majority of the movie and was used to streamline the plot, and that’s the rooftop scene where Batman captures a parademon. Thanks to an interview with the actor that played the thief in that scene, we know it was a Whedon addition, and that means the concept of a siren that attracts the parademons and the fact that they smell fear was also introduced through reshoots.
Those concepts would be brought back in the final act, reducing Batman’s role to playing that same siren noise to attract the parademons, then also with Steppenwolf attracting the parademons to himself because he felt fear. It's still not known what plot elements were replaced by this.
The Opening Credits Were Mostly Joss Whedon
Zack Snyder is famous for his opening credits scenes. While he’s controversial on the whole, most people agree that his opening credits for Dawn of the Dead and Watchmen are masterworks. That makes it odd that Justice League’s opening credits weren’t all his design.
It’s possible some of the footage used in the opening credits is his, some of it even repurposed from other moments of the movie, but the song, “Everybody Knows” by Sigrid, was actually selected by Whedon, as he revealed on Twitter.
Lex Luthor's Role
Instead of Batman learning about parademons by catching them and making them explode, he was actually learning from Lex Luthor’s journal, and possibly from Lex himself. It’s not clear how much of Lex was cut, but Jesse Eisenberg confirmed several scenes of his were cut. We know Batman was using his journal because we see it in a couple scenes, and he also makes a reference to it at one point. The thing is, the journal contains information about the Mother Boxes Luthor didn’t learn about until the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, so it couldn't have been confiscated with the rest of Luthor's possessions.
Thanks to concept art, we know Lex was supposed to be in a cell in Arkham with a journal where he was likely recording all the information he was exposed to on the Kryptonian ship when he connected with Steppenwolf. That means Batman likely paid him a visit to interrogate him and get the journal sometime early in the movie. Luthor’s role was reduced to a simple post-credits scene, but his influence was likely far more significant in the first half of the movie.
Superman's Story Was Almost Entirely Re-shot
The changes to Superman are hard to pin down because they’re some of the most pervasive in the whole movie, and the fact that he wasn’t in any marketing means there’s no original footage to compare against. What is evident, though, is what is Superman reshoots, because Mission Impossible 6 couldn’t be shaved, meaning there’s an awkward digital upper lip on all Superman’s new scenes.
Related: How Superman Returned In Zack Snyder's Justice League
Based on the upper lip changes, it’s evident that almost all of Superman was reshoot, particularly dialogue, aside from a moment or two in the final battle, part of the scene with Bruce at the Kent farm at the end, and the very last shot of him pulling his shirt open to reveal the Superman symbol in classic fashion.
Darkseid Was in The Movie And Played An Important Role
Outside of a vague shout-out by Steppenwolf, Darkseid makes no appearance in the theatrical cut of Justice League, but he was supposed to play a much, much bigger role in the Snyder Cut. It’s not clear if these scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, or were removed from the script in earlier stages, or a little of both, but Darkseid would have made multiple appearances in Zack Snyder’s movie.
The first reference that we know of would have come in a cutscene where Wonder Woman explores a shrine containing murals of an ancient invasion of Earth. On that mural, there’s an image of Darkseid leading his parademons, along with greek text describing the events of the battle.
In the theatrical cut, the battle was led by Steppenwolf, but according to the mural, Darkseid actually led the battle. Or, Uxas, the younger, pre-Darkseid version of the character, per a comment made by Zack Snyder. In this battle, Darkseid would have faced off against the Greek gods, specifically Ares in an epic battle before being driven away from the Earth.
Given the prominence of Darkseid earlier in the movie, it’s possible he had more interraction with Steppenwolf throughout, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. His last appearance also isn’t confirmed, but it’s a fairly logical certainty. Stepenwolf’s defeat is clearly heavily edited at the end of the movie, and a report before the movie came out said that Snyder said the League was looking at a Boom Tube. It was likely more than just Boom Tube, and this is where Darkseid would reveal himself to the League.
Cyborg’s Origins and Backstory Were Cut
Before Justice League's release, learning about his ability to fly, tap into computer networks, deploy weapons, and more.
Another deleted scene shows showing an alternate version of his origins from the lab cam feed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in a scene that likely resembled Doctor Manhattan's transformation in Watchmen.
Ray Fisher was also supposed to have more time as Victor Stone, with a scene of him playing football leading into a car accident that kills his mom and severely injures him before we see a new perspective of his birth as Cyborg.
All of this was condensed down into the theatrical cut’s apartment scene with Silas Stone, with brief exposition establishing the hight points of his backstory.
Flash's Backstory and Iris West
Another leaked deleted scene would have shown Barry Allen Iris West ended up being entirely removed from the movie, so it’s not known if she played a significant role outside this scene, or if it was just a flashback about Barry learning his powers, but it was definitely more backstory than what ended up in the final film.
Aquaman Backstory and Atlantis Lore
Aquaman also saw a significant bit of his backstory cut. The reshoots made major alterations to the Djúpavík Iceland scene, including a likely appearance from Mera. Zack Snyder posted images of Amber Heard in full Mera costume from Iceland, but due to lack of context, it’s hard to know what role she played in that part of the film, since the theatrical cut bears no trace of her presence. Blockbuster costume, hair, and makeup departments don’t just get someone in character for fun, though, and Amber Heard heard had no business being in Iceland otherwise.
Willem Dafoe’s Vulko also shot scenes for Justice League, but was entirely removed. Nothing is known about the nature of his scenes, though.
When it comes to Atlantis, Justice League was never going to reveal Atlantis itself, since Zack Snyder was leaving that to James Wan’s Aquaman solo movie, but there was way more Atlantean lore in the original cut.
As shown in a VFX test posted by Zack Snyder before he left the project, Aquaman approached the Dead King’s throne, but the scene was altered for the theatrical cut so a dead Atlantean soldier is floating in front of where the Dead King was before.
Since Aquaman has his armor and quindent when he s up with the Justice League, he presumably was going to Atlantis to get those. Knowing he encountered Mera back in Iceland, his pit stop in Atlantis may have been related to whatever they talked about there.
