The long-awaited Snyder Cut of “Justice League” has been on HBO Max for almost a full week. But yet, the discussion surrounding Zack Snyder’s superhero magnum opus has yet to die down. And according to the filmmaker, the Snyder Cut itself might not have actually been finished if he stood strong about one cut the studio demanded that he make.
According to an interview on the ReelBlend podcast (seen below), Snyder talked about the already-discussed scene that was originally intended for the “Justice League” director’s cut but was left on the cutting room floor involving Green Lantern. As revealed in a previous interview, Snyder originally wanted to feature the character of John Stewart as the Green Lantern in the final scene of the film, which eventually would see Martian Manhunter talking to Bruce Wayne. He also reiterated that WB and HBO Max didn’t want any new footage in the film at all. “I’ll be frank, the studio didn’t want me to shoot anything,” he said. “One of the rules of making the Snydercut, was that the studio said, ‘no shooting of any kind.’ but then, I, of course, shot stuff anyway.”
In the new interview, while he didn’t reveal who he brought in to play Stewart in the film, Snyder did say that he shot the scene with “an amazing actor” and he had hoped to include it in the final version. However, when he showed it to Warner Bros., they told him to remove the scene. This led to a moment where the filmmaker had to make a tough choice.
“When [WB] saw the movie and they saw that I had done every single thing they asked me not to do, we had come to a bit of a [motions two fists coming together], a loggerhead. In the negotiation, we got this Batman vs. Joker scene out of it and I was like, ‘Look, I’m not going to take a person of color out of the movie, can I at least bring in Martian Manhunter at the end of the movie?’ And that’s why I had to reshoot that scene.”
As for when we might find out who the actor he cast as Green Lantern might be, he said it’s a discussion “for another time,” and Snyder just wants to take some time from the release before diving into who it might be. Though he did tease that he has a finished version of the now-altered scene.
Speaking to Esquire, Snyder once again told the same story but talked more about the disagreement he had with WB and how it almost led to him walking away.
“And I said that I would quit if they tried to take it out. And I felt bad. The truth is I didn’t want the fans to not have a movie, just based on that one stand that I was going to take,” explained the filmmaker. “And the Green Lantern was John Stewart. And that was part of it too. I was like, I don’t want to take a person of color out of this movie. I’m not going to do it. And, but then, but I felt like having Harry Lennix’s Martian Manhunter at the end was, that was okay.”
“Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” with 100% less John Stewart/Green Lantern, is now available to stream on HBO Max.
