Trivia / Zack Snyder's Justice League

For the Trivia page of the 2017 theatrical version, see here.

---

• Acting for Two: Ray Porter played both Darkseid and one of the human blacksmiths who built the metal casing for the Mother Box that humans were entrusted with after the battle against Darkseid in ancient times.
• Acting in the Dark:
  • Harry Lennix had absolutely no idea that his character, General Calvin Swanwick, was meant to be the Martian Manhunter until it was revealed by Zack Snyder via Vero. This is understandable, given that Snyder didn't originally film the planned cameo with Lennix during principal photography, or the planned reshoots prior to his exit from the movie in 2017, and Snyder made the change as a result of fan theories he read after principal photography wrapped.
  • Similarly, Diane Lane played the scene with Lois as Martha Kent. Zack Snyder repurposed the scene, with Martha actually being a disguised Martian Manhunter there.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Even before there was a script, Ray Fisher was given the opportunity to write elements of his character, Victor Stone/Cyborg, and his family.
    "I don't praise Chris Terrio and Zack Snyder for simply putting me in Justice League. I praise them for EMPOWERING me (a black man with no film credits to his name) with a seat at the creative table and input on the framing of the Stones before there was even a script!"
  • To portray Darkseid, Ray Porter said he drew from his experience with William Shakespeare's plays.
• Actor-Shared Background: Barry indirectly mentions that he's Jewish once again. So is Ezra Miller.
• Approval of God:
  • Cyborg's co-creator Marv Wolfman praised Ray Fisher, saying he "did justice to the character".
  • Gail Simone, a one-time writer for JLA (and thanked in the credits), gave the movie glowing praise. She even tied it in with her most fundamental love of the DC comics as a child.
  • Gerry Conway, who wrote Justice League of America for eight years and was not a fan of Snyder's previous DC films, praised this one, describing it as "the movie I wish Man Of Steel and Batman V Superman would have been."
• Ascended Fanon: The idea that Calvin Swanwick was secretly the Martian Manhunter originally started as a fan theory that Zack Snyder liked enough to canonize. Also counts as Ascended Fancast for Harry Lennix.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • In Zoom meetings on YouTube fan channels, Ray Porter has expressed no shortage of enthusiasm about taking on the role of Darkseid, be it the fact that he loves what he learned about the character, working with Snyder, the prospect of having action figures themed after a character that he played or that he came after some big names like Michael Ironside.
  • Jared Leto parted ways with DC Films due to the extensive Executive Meddling that considerably reduced the screentime of his character, the Joker, in Suicide Squad. He was then replaced by a Fake Shemp in Birds of Prey. However, he later accepted to appear as the Joker once more in Zack Snyder's Justice League at Snyder's own request. Interviews show that he did so because he loved the idea of working with Snyder (calling him "a warrior", "a madman" in endearing terms), also knowing that the director's creative freedom would be respected this time around, unlike what happened to David Ayer.
  • Joe Manganiello was in a similar position as Leto above, having admitted to growing disillusioned about playing Deathstroke after multiple projects he'd been tapped to reprise the role in were either cancelled or put in Development Hell. And much like Leto, he got enthusiastic again when Snyder called him up to shoot new scenes.
• Billing Displacement: All over the place.
  • Henry Cavill is billed second. While Superman is a very important role, he's almost entirely absent from the first half and a more supporting presence compared to the other League members when he's resurrected later on.
  • Amy Adams comes in third even though Lois Lane only comes into focus in the second half, and even then, her role is fairly small.
  • Ray Fisher is bumped up to fifth billing from the theatrical cut thanks to his much larger role here. Still, given the sheer amount of focus Cyborg gets, second billing would be more appropriate.
  • Ciarán Hinds plays the Big Bad who has a consistent presence and many scenes dedicated to him, arguably being the largest role outside of the Justice League except for maybe Jeremy Irons. His name pops up after several actors in minor roles like Diane Lane and J. K. Simmons, and he doesn't even get an individual credit, sharing it with Ryan Zheng, who plays another minor role.
  • The aforementioned Irons is billed behind Willem Dafoe and Jesse Eisenberg, even though they both only make brief appearances while Irons is present throughout and far more important.
  • Connie Nielsen, while not in a large role, still gets a decent amount of screentime and action near the beginning. She gets billed behind the previously mentioned brief appearances by Dafoe, Eisenberg and Lane.
  • Eisenberg getting an individual credit at all - much less as early as it is - stands out, as he has a mere two scenes. One is just seconds long with no dialogue. The other is no more than two minutes and completely unconnected to the plot.
  • Joe Morton plays Cyborg's dad Silas who is very important to the plot, but gets booted down to sharing his credit with Amber Heard, who only has one major scene and a few smaller moments.
  • Lisa Loven Kongsli isn't much more than an extra and David Thewlis's appearance is one where you'll miss it by blinking, yet they manage to be the third and last pair to get shared credits in the opening.
• California Doubling:
  • A number of America-set scenes were filmed at the Warner Bros. Studios of Leavesden, Hertfordshire, Southeast England, including the football game between Gotham City University and the University of Wisconsin.
  • Despite the final battle taking place in Russia, no filming was done in that country.
  • No filming took place in Greece either, for the scenes in which Diana goes to the temple where the arrow that her mother shot to warn her landed.
• Channel Hop: The film was released first through HBO Max instead of Warner Bros.' usual distribution assets. A limited IMAX release is still being planned.
• Colbert Bump: Ray Porter, who has been acting and voice acting for a few decades, now has a Wikipedia page thanks to this film and the role of Darkseid.
• Content Leak:
  • The first bona fide trailer was leaked in HD several hours ahead of its intended debut at DC FanDome on August 22, 2020.
  • The February 2021 trailer was also leaked about three hours ahead of its intended debut, prompting an early release of it from HBO Max and other official channels. It caused an intended official watch party event with a selected panel of fans to be cancelled.
  • The track "The Crew at Warpower" from the soundtrack by JunkieXL was leaked, then released officially a couple days later.
  • After a stream of reports from Twitter users, HBO Max confirmed that the final film wound up being accidentally leaked on the streaming service itself less than two weeks before release, due to a mix-up which resulted in users who tried to watch Tom and Jerry instead getting to watch Zack Snyder's Justice League (though the error was corrected within an hour, meaning no one would have seen the full leaked movie). Portions of the ending — including the new Knightmare scene and the Martian Manhunter cameo — got out.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • Some media outlets unaware of the extent of the Troubled Production the 2017 theatrical release resulted from mistakenly believed this to be an "extended version" of the movie, with jokes about how the movie will need/get better CGI to conceal Henry Cavill's mustache being not too uncommon (or some not even joking about the movie needing such work). The reality is that there are several key differences in spite of some shared footage common to both iterations, as none of the Whedon-helmed scenes (which were filmed while Cavill had a contractually-obligated mustache for another movie) were used by Snyder.
  • The pretty high cost to finish the film (the $70 million figure that was thrown around) had a number of outlets pretending that Snyder was going to significantly extend the film, or create an entirely new movie instead of finish the one that he started development on in 2016. Then it turned out the additional photography's scenes amount to only four to five minutes. The rest was used to pay the new special effects, some additional photography, and also residuals for actors who were cut from the theatrical version.
  • Related to the above, misleading headlines popped up after a series of interviews Snyder gave in mid-November 2020, such as "There will be only four minutes of new footage in Zack Snyder's Justice League". Snyder only talked about four minutes of additional photography. The film contains about three hours of previously unseen footage that was filmed back in 2016.
• Creator Backlash: This project appears to have been one that some Warner Bros. executives regret ever greenlighting. Among the reasons for why the Re-Cut came into existence were immense fan campaigning, increasingly vocal support from creators involved in the 2017 version, as well as the likes of AT&T and WarnerMedia seeking exclusive content to bolster their then-upcoming HBO Max. However, they were still greatly stringent with Snyder on how this version could actually fare (Snyder said they "antagonized [him] every step of the way"), resulting in further messy budget complications, and the end result was something they were publicly unhappy with, as only 36% of HBO Max users allegedly watched the film in one go. ^note The only kind of numbers available were those of third party Samba TV, which only counts smart TVs and no other kinds of devices used for streaming. No other source has ever been revealed so one has to take their word for it, and nothing has ever been said on how the film performed internationally, since it had an international video-on-demand release as HBO Max was only available in the USA at the time..
• Creator Recovery: Along with Snyder's return to form with Army of the Dead following the tragedy he and his family endured in 2017 with the loss of his daughter Autumn, the film is surprisingly less dreary and tragic than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
• The Danza: Ryan Zheng as Ryan Choi.
• Darkhorse Casting:
  • For the voice and motion capture of Darkseid, Zack Snyder chose to cast Ray Porter, a little known thespian, voice actor, audiobook narrator and Bit Character actor who appeared in the likes of Almost Famous, The Runaways, Argo and Sons of Anarchy.
  • The mothers of several DCEU superheroes were played by "household names" (by Hollywood standards anyway) such as Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen and Nicole Kidman. A British TV and stage actress with a much lower profile (though she got an MBE for Services to Drama), Karen Bryson, was cast for Elinore Stone.
  • Snyder also filmed a John Stewart scene with an unknown actor named Wayne T. Carr, but that scene wasn't included in the film due to Executive Veto.
• Deleted Role: Snyder intended to introduce John Stewart in this film and even filmed the scene in his backyard with actor Wayne T. Carr in the role. Executives vetoed that scene.
• Deleted Scene:
  • One shot of DeSaad from the 2020 trailer didn't make it to the final cut.
  • On April 2, 2021, Snyder released an extended version of the conversation between Joker and Batman. After Batman takes Joker's card, Joker mocks him for retaining his sense of honor (dropping the "We live in a society" line), and then asks if Batman thinks Harley Quinn or Robin screamed louder as they died.
  • The above-mentioned Green Lantern scene that wasn't included due to Executive Veto.
• Demand Overload:
  • HBO Max servers crashed under the demand on the day of release.
  • Blu-rays and 4K completely sold out in many places on the day of the US physical media release.
• Direct to Video: The film premiered on the HBO Max streaming service first (and on HBO partner streaming/VOD sites internationally), then came out on physical home video. It's had limited IMAX theatrical screenings with profits going to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
• Doing It for the Art:
  • Snyder declined to get a salary for completing this version of the movie, seeing it as its own reward. The move also apparently allowed him to have more creative freedom on the project than he would have otherwise. Snyder also indicated that a portion of the revenue received by the film will go directly to suicide prevention causes.
    Zack Snyder: It's exciting to get this chance, and I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, and I love working in it, and I'd do it for free — and I am.
  • When originally approached about releasing the cut as is, Snyder refused because it wasn't completed to any satisfactory level; he knew that WB was looking to improve their relationship with the internet and the cut would be criticized for being in rough shape and would "justify" the radical changes made to the original theatrical version. If he couldn't do it right he was fine with the Snyder Cut being a "mythical unicorn".
  • Junkie XL completely rewrote the four-hour score from the movie from scratch — not just for the purpose of adding new material that he thought of in the years since last working in the franchise, but also to distance his work from the initial iteration of the production due to Snyder's family tragedy. Back in 2017, he planned to voluntarily left the project out of respect for Snyder before being replaced by Danny Elfman.
• Dueling Works:
  • With Eternals, a film that also features an Ensemble Cast (with some similar powers) and an immortal cosmic race created by Jack Kirby — the New Gods and the Eternals respectively.
  • It came out just one day before the MCU streaming series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Both are streaming-exclusive installments of their respective franchise, both feature superheroes teaming up (on a lower scale for Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and dealing with threats in the absence of The Cape (Steve Rogers and Superman). In a skewed way, it's also a rematch after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War, since both installments share a lot of the same protagonists as their predecessor.
• Executive Veto:
  • For the original production, Snyder revealed that he had intended for Superman to have a mullet haircut (like his comics counterpart's resurrection) and a beard when returning in the black suit. He wasn't allowed to do it, and even recalled that, unlike the blue suit that could be darkened fairly easily, it would've been much more difficult to modify Henry Cavill's face, referring to the reverse process with the infamous CGI face of the theatrical version.
  • While Snyder requested an opportunity to film new setpieces for this iteration of the movie, HBO Max explicitly declined for budgetary reasons. That said, he was still permitted to do a few pick-ups, such as the ones necessary to include the Martian Manhunter cameo. Later, it seemed that this veto was itself vetoed, and a week or so of additional shooting was permitted by the studio. It concerned the aforementioned cameo and the Bad Future scene — although he wasn't allowed to film a planned scene in which Batman explores a Parademon nest that was cut from the original production, this time due to the aforementioned budget reasons.
  • Though the executives in charge of WB allowed him to film a few additional scenes even against their personal wishes, they made one demand: leave out references to the Green Lantern Corps, which became an issue since Snyder filmed a John Stewart cameo as the final scene of the film without asking for permission first. This is because the IP in question was a focus of DC Films and HBO Max, and they had no expectations of casting Snyder's pick for the character in the role. Snyder was said to be so frustrated with this change that he considered walking away from the project, but a compromise was made to add Martian Manhunter, a character who already appeared earlier in the film, to a reshot version of the scene instead.
• Fake American: The British Karen Bryson as the American Elinore Stone.
• Fake Brit: Amber Heard puts on a Received Pronounciation accent to portray Mera, in contrast to her previous appearances where she used her natural American accent.
• Flip-Flop of God: Zack Snyder spoke of the movie as an Elseworlds story in a way that might imply it's an Alternate Continuity diverging from the timeline of the other DC Extended Universe movies that came after 2017. James Wan and Jason Momoa meanwhile said that Aquaman is canon with Snyder's version of the film, picking up where it left off. Snyder later confirmed that he doesn't consider the other DCEU movies as part of his own canon. The "Mother Box Origins" trailer has Wonder Woman standing by a 1854 helmet from the Crimean War, which is the setting of the Wonder Woman origin story as he envisioned it◊, while Patty Jenkins chose World War I for her movie (with Snyder's full support, still).
• Hostility on the Set: Snyder talked about some Warner Bros. executives who kept pestering him in a passive-aggressive manner while he was working on the restored film in 2020. He said they "antagonized him every step of the way" and compared it to "torture".
• In Memoriam: The movie ends with the statement "For Autumn," Snyder's daughter who passed away during the original production and caused him to step back. The first trailer used Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as a reference to her, she loved the song and a cover of it (performed by a close friend) was played at her funeral — which features in the film itself during the credits. In addition, the film debuts on March 18, 2021 — that's the fourth anniversary of Autumn's passing, minus one day.
• Invisible Advertising: Despite its obvious association with it and its logo being in it, the US branch of Warner Bros. did practically no promotional effort for the film, merely retweeting the trailers (unlike several countries' branches of WB that promoted the movie, somehow). Instead, other aspects of WarnerMedia — such as AT&T and HBO Max — handled promotion, alongside Snyder himself (who showed up in person on many fan YouTube channels).
• Late Export for You: A domestic variation on it, oddly. The film came out on physical media as soon as late May/early June 2021 in some countries, while the USA had to wait till September. That didn't prevent many from ordering copies online from abroad in the meantime.
• Meaningful Release Date:
  • The movie releases on March 18, 2021 — a day shy of the fourth anniversary of Autumn Snyder's suicide. Her death is what caused Zack Snyder to leave the film in the first place, and it served as a motivation for him to finish the movie.
  • The Wonder Woman teaser for the film was released on March 8 which is, of course, International Women's Day.
• The Merch: A good part of the merch related to the film has been created by charity partners such as Ink to the People, a wide array of T-shirts and hoodies most notably — some of them starting even months before the film was announced, the first major clues that the film was going to be released in fact. The earnings from them were donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which Zack Snyder supports since his daughter Autumn took her own life in 2017 when he was working on the film's first post-production.
• Milestone Celebration: The film debuted one week before the fifth anniversary of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
• Network to the Rescue: This director's cut came about due to multiple reasons: fans spreading the message #ReleaseTheSnyderCut everywhere possible (including trending on social media, flyers at Comic Cons, and ads on buses, plane banners and even a New York Times Square billboard) since the release of Justice League in November 2017, support from everyone gradually ranging from stunt performers and storyboard artists to the actors and cinematographer (along with sharing deleted content in their possession) and the director himself, and AT&T (Warner Bros.' parent company) as well as WarnerMedia and HBO Max executives seeing buzzy potential in this version of the film to bolster the latter streaming service without it needing as much work to complete as a typical original series or film, especially since the COVID-19 Pandemic had either halted or slowed down the production of many original shows or films the service badly needed to appeal to customers after its underwhelming launch.
• No Budget: Most of the $70 million that were allocated to Snyder were used to finish the special effects of scenes he shot in 2016. The extra scenes he added (the Bad Future with Batman meeting the Joker, most notably) on the other hand had a shoestring budget and were filmed in Snyder's own backyard (also accounting for COVID-19 Pandemic times logistics), hence why they don't look as polished as the rest of the film.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: Back in February 2020 (a few months before the film's announcement), perhaps the most decisive clue that something was going to happen was the fact that Snyder himself launched a fan art contest to design a poster for the film. The winner, Victor Ku (aka "Mighty Pegasus") won a clapperboard with a message on it that allowed him to attend the shooting of new scenes for the film.
• Orphaned Reference: Despite how unlikely a sequel is, the film still contains some nods to the intended Story Arc. In particular, Knightmare Joker playfully wondering how many timelines Bruce has doomed because he doesn't have the balls to die himself - a nod to the intended way to prevent the Bad Future, where Darkseid would try to kill Lois Lane in the batcave^note On the bad/main timeline, he's successful, resulting in Clark going through a Despair Event Horizon that leaves him vulnerable to the Anti-Life Equation that completes his Face–Heel Turn but Bruce intervenes and ends up Taking the Bullet (or rather, Omega Beam) meant for her, preventing Darkseid from corrupting Clark, giving him a powerful enemy instead of a crucial ally.
• Produced by Cast Member: Ben Affleck (Batman) is one of the executive producers.
• Reality Subtext:
  • The movie was always intended to explore themes related to dealing with loss and failure, which already had some reality subtext given how divisive the earlier movies were. But after Zack Snyder's family tragedy, stepping away from the movie and the movie being heavily altered to an equally divisive response, the unusual genesis of this version and those themes of finding redemption and salvation take on a whole new meaning.
  • There's also the way how Superman wears the black and silver costume in this movie symbolizing him embracing his role as a hero for Earth and making peace with his human and Kryptonian heritages, while the one he wears after being brainwashed by a higher power as seen in the Knightmare future is the traditional blue and red suit.
• Recursive Adaptation: Steppenwolf's unique design would be incorporated into the comics seven months after the movie's release.
• Role Reprise:
  • Jared Leto came back as The Joker for additional scenes, five years after Suicide Squad and after declining to appear in Birds of Prey.
  • Harry Lennix wasn't able to come back as Calvin Swanwick in the 2017 theatrical version, and came back in this one for The Reveal that Swanwick is actually Martian Manhunter.
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, besides those mentioned in the theatrical movie's trivia page, there are: Alexandre Moreno as the Joker, whom he voiced in Suicide Squad (2016), and Maurício Berger as the Martian Manhunter, whom he also voices in the Arrowverse.
• Screwed by the Lawyers:
  • It took a while for HBO Max to actually call the movie by its official name due to issues with working around trademarks and copyright where a creator's name was concerned, although the issue was resolved before it was released. It's still an issue in some places, as some HBO Max promos that show the movie as part of montages showing off original programming opt to use the movie's Justice League logo instead of listing the full title.
  • The "Hallelujah" trailer was taken down from official WB and HBO Max-affiliated outlets due to the companies in question not renewing the license to reuse the Leonard Cohen song. The problem was solved a few weeks later and an updated version of this trailer was uploaded back on November 17, 2020, exactly three years after the release of the theatrical cut.
  • It's believed that this is why the project isn't airing as a miniseries as originally planned; the changes in contracts would likely mean that the cast and crew would have to be paid more to recut the finished film instead of something with multiple installments, and Warner Bros. wasn't willing to do that. Snyder got around this issue by having markers for multiple parts of the film, denoting ideal places for viewers to stop and resume watching the film if four hours is too much of an undertaking to watch in a single sitting.
• Screwed by the Network: Somehow, the "Own It Now" home video release trailer on YouTube has been kept unlisted, preventing it from reaching a large viewership.
• Sending Stuff to Save the Show:
  • A fan campaign arose in November 2017, with the goal of having Snyder's original version released when it became clear that the theatrical version had little to do with the director's work bar some action scenes. Following the example of Richard Donner's cut of Superman II, numerous letters were sent at Warner Bros. Along with this, there were phone calls and various actions such as fundraisers and advertisement campaigns with 50% of the proceeds going to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention that Snyder supports since the death of his daughter Autumn, and campaigns at the San Diego Comic Cons of 2018 and 2019. Further fundraising was even used to bring the campaign to Times Square billboards. It ended up a success when Zack Snyder's Justice League was eventually announced for release in 2021.
  • As March 18, 2021 closed in, there was much fan pressure (with help from Snyder) on WarnerMedia to have the film release worldwide at the same time on other platforms (since HBO Max is only available in the USA for the time being) and not in a staggered way, in order for it to be available to non-American fans at the same time.
  • Following the film's release, a new campaign around the hashtag #RestoreTheSnyderVerse arose, primarily to get the Justice League sequels that Snyder intended made. It happened after Warner Bros.' intent to not proceed to make them was made clear in a press release by Ann Sarnoff.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Principal photography ended in late 2016 and most of this version of the movie remained unreleased from 2017 to 2021, for various reasons.
• Spared by the Cut:
  • Inverted with Silas Stone, as his death plays a major role in Cyborg's character arc that was significantly changed in the theatrical version.
  • The Flying Fox survives the climactic battle in this version of the film.
• Teasing Creator:
  • Since about early 2018, Snyder teased his version of the film with screenshots, behind-the-scenes photos and storyboards on the only social media he uses, Vero. All the screenshots were in black and white until the announcement, where he shifted to colors. Whatever his goal was (likely using the fandom to make enough noise to convince Warner Bros. or its parent company to give it a chance), it eventually paid off. Snyder also point blank said he had fears of being sued by the studio for doing this all this time.
  • While the character ended up cut from the film due to Executive Veto, Snyder still shared a phone picture of John Stewart (Wayne T. Carr) a few weeks after the release, with completed special effects for the Green Lantern suit.
• Throw It In!:
  • It turned out that the "We live in a society..." line from the second trailer wasn't in the script, Jared Leto came up with it, according to Zack Snyder. It doesn't appear in the film proper, although Snyder released the take of the line on Vero.
  • According to this article, the special effects team was given a lot of leeway during certain fight scenes, with people coming up with new ideas, and then asking Snyder if they could do so. In particular, Darkseid's initial invasion^note As noted in the article, even before the scene was cut down for the 2017 version, it still wasn't as long, elaborate and detailed as it ended up being here was essentially a blank canvas where the animators could put Darkseid and the defenders of earth in all kinds of scenarios, as long as the characters eventually did what the plot needed. Likewise, Steppenwolf losing one of his horns was decided upon because the crew wanted his head to roll under Darkseid's foot, which wouldn't really work if he still had both of them - and then to add insult to injury, then it was decided that if one horn was going to go, they may as well cut the other off too.
    Snyder: I always say, 'Show me something I didn't think of', and that’s what happened here. For me, it just helped make the movie bigger.
• Trolling Creator: Promotional material showcased a new look for the Joker. A trailer involved the meme "We live in a society" associated with the Joker and an interview showed Jared Leto donning a Crown of Thorns to resemble the crucifixion, both of which caused internet outcry. But neither the line or the crown actually appear in the movie, and given the close proximity to release was likely done just to have fun or stir things up a little. It's not the first time Leto has made headlines with "outrageous" film set antics, those from the filming of Suicide Squad were already notorious (though according to himself, a good part of these were just urban legends).
• Troubled Production:
  • Although the problems that this iteration of the movie faced really pale in comparison to the problems in making the theatrical version (detailed on the dedicated page), there was some difficulty in getting the movie finished due to the COVID-19 Pandemic that the people involved had to work around, along with some executive vetos. The additional photography needed to finish the film had to be delayed until the cast and crew could safely assemble for the last few scenes needed to finish the movie. Snyder even directed some pick-up scenes via Zoom.
  • The pre-release phase on HBO Max didn't go without some major hiccups, such as an early leak via Tom & Jerry or "Microsoft outages" that prevented the virtual premiere from happening on schedule on March 15, 2021.
• Uncredited Role: Kevin Costner isn't credited for his voiceover (and appearing in a photograph) as Jonathan Kent, although Russell Crowe is credited for Jor-El's voiceover.
• What Could Have Been: Quite a bit of it for this movie. For the planned follow-ups, see the page on the Justice League 2 outline.
  • Warner Bros. originally approached Zack and Deborah Snyder with a proposal to release the movie as a workprint to HBO Max. Zack declined, citing issues with the temp score and several unfinished VFX scenes. He subsequently put together a pitch to justify spending tens of millions of dollars to properly finish his iteration of the movie, which eventually succeeded, leading to Zack Snyder's Justice League. Snyder explained his reasoning for rejecting a release of an unfinished film:
  Zack Snyder: I was like, "That's a 'no', that's a hard 'no'." And they're like, "But why? You can just put up the rough cut." I go, "Here's why. Three reasons: One, you get the internet off your back, which is probably your main reason for wanting to do this. Two, you get to feel vindicated for making things right, I guess, on some level. And then three, you get a shitty version of the movie that you can point at and go, 'See? It's not that good anyway. So maybe I was right.'" I was like, "No chance. I would rather just have the Snyder Cut be a mythical unicorn for all time."
  • Snyder had planned for there to be a scene where Batman discovers a Parademon hive gaining new recruits by means of horrific physical transformations. This scene was never filmed at all after being deemed "too disturbing" by executives and was instead replaced by scenes in the flashback showing some unlucky humans being converted into Parademons, which made it into the theatrical version. In the Snyder Cut, the origin of the Parademons is only explained in dialogue.
  • During the press tour, a traveling gallery of the costumes, props and concept art of the three Snyder films also included large poster boards made back in 2014-2015 (after BvS wrapped filming and during the early stages of scripting Justice League) that was made to outline two additional Justice League movies for WB executives and would incorporate the intended solo movies of the other characters, essentially the blueprint for the DCEU as a Shared Universe and had input from Geoff Johns and artistry done by Jim Lee. This blueprint informed the "Knightmare" sequence included in BVS in reshoots as well as the early story of Suicide Squad (2016)^note The Enchantress was under the control of a Motherbox, with Steppenwolf to be the final enemy, but numerous changes were already evident by the time the first Justice League had a completed script.
    • Prior to filming, the decision was made to remove a romantic subplot where Bruce Wayne falls in love with Lois Lane in the wake of Superman's death, which according to Snyder would have led into the former's decision to try to assemble the team and resurrect Superman. There was also a plan for Bruce and Lois to have had an affair prior to Superman's resurrection that would produce a son. Clark would become the child's adoptive father after Bruce's death, and the child would eventually become the new Batman in a Distant Finale. Interestingly enough, the final cut does show Lois having a pregnancy test kit at her apartment and her carrying a baby basket when the Kents move back to the farm, though Word of God states the between the Executive Veto and the fact that it was a first draft idea, the child would've ultimately turned out to be Clark's and be named after Bruce to commemorate his sacrifice to stop Darkseid. The mystery behind who the father was, as shown in Zack Snyder's outlines, would lead to Batman not being present in the Batcave at the moment Darkseid invades to kill Lois due to the child being claimed to be Clark's, requiring Flash to lie that he is instead Bruce's to motivate Bruce to be there and take Darkseid's Omega Beams in Lois' place.
    • Lex Luthor's role in the sequels was to unravel the mystery of the Anti-Life Equation and try to capitalize on Darkseid's involvement in order to claim that power for himself. He would assemble the Injustice League in an attempt to undermine the heroes, which would consist of many surviving villains from the solo movies, and they would succeed in assassinating Wonder Woman and Aquaman^note The former would die when Doctor Poison deploys poisonous gas on Themyscira, exterminating all Amazons in the process. The latter would be killed by Black Manta, the villain harboring a grudge over the death of his father in Aquaman's film. An attempt to kill Flash and Cyborg by Captain Cold, on the other hand, is unsuccessful.. Lex would even be the one that tells Darkseid about Lois so her death breaks Superman, but would be killed himself once Darkseid had Superman's loyalty.
    • The sequel was set to end on a bleak Cliffhanger to set up the next film, in a manner not entirely dissimilar to what Marvel Studios would do with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. In this ending, Darkseid would have taken over the Earth and force Superman past the Despair Event Horizon by killing Lois and framing her murder on Batman, and then use the Anti-Life Equation to turn him into his new Dragon. Only Batman, Flash, and a mutilated Cyborg would survive to lead a resistance, and try to control Flash's ability to Time Travel by finding the exact point in time where things can be made right (which was the payoff to Flash in BvS saying "Am I too soon?!").
    • The cliffhanger ending's story elements were to lead the next film to explore the Bad Future in detail as they avoid Darkseid's forces and find the right point in time to fix the problem, which would allow them to unite a larger version of the team to fight off Darkseid's invasion. This larger version of the team was basically the entirety of Earth, superheroes and conventional military, with characters like Cyborg and The Flash managing to unlock the deepest reserves of their powers.
    • Much of the above is conjecture, as this initial story plan was based around a three-part series before being bumped to either four or five-part series, hence why it was shoved out of Justice League and was instead reconfigured. In the five-part plan, the scene was originally included as a short epilogue set five years later, showcasing Batman, Flash, and Cyborg in the post-apocalyptic landscape. The further glimpses of the Knightmare in this film show Wonder Woman and Aquamans' death, indicating that some version of this idea still factors into the story in spite of what changed.
  • The Joker was not originally supposed to appear in his Justice League cut, but Snyder got the idea to include him after Warner Bros. and HBO Max gave green light to the project.
  • Scott Snyder was asked to help with an adaptation and expansion of the film in comic book form, but declined due to scheduling conflicts.
  • Zack Snyder initially planned to release the movie as a four-part miniseries, complete with a title sequence involving the Mother Boxes and Cliffhanger segments for each part, but instead decided to release the movie as a film with six "chapters" and an epilogue as originally planned. Snyder indicated that the latter was his personal preference.
  • Snyder wanted Superman to have a mullet (like the one he had he had in The Return of Superman), a beard and a capeless black suit upon being revived. Executive Veto prevailed and none of that happened as a result. He circumvented the black suit problem by having the blue suit be made of materials that could easily be darkened in post-production, at least.
  • HBO Max and WarnerMedia's other labels originally planned to have a staggered international release for the film, but pressure from fans and Snyder convinced them to have a day-and-date release for most territories (aside from Japan and China).
  • Zack Snyder wanted Ryan Reynolds have a Role Reprise cameo as Hal Jordan, albeit not the same version from the 2011 movie. It didn't work out, but the plan was originally to have him mentor the John Stewart version of the character, who would be the protagonist of a hypothetical Green Lantern movie and the actual member of the Justice League in this story. (Hal, however, would still be a key player elsewhere.)
  • In the final scene filmed in 2016, Bruce Wayne was meant to be visited by two Green Lanterns: Kilowog and Tomar-Re. This scene was reshot in 2020, with the intent of featuring John Stewart and Kilowog instead. Snyder shot the cameo in his driveway with stage actor Wayne T. Carr as Stewart, and intended to cast a voice for Kilowog later. The studio told Snyder that Stewart couldn't be used due to them having their own plans for the character, so the Martian Manhunter was used instead. This idea was dropped late enough that some merchandise featuring Stewart's Green Lantern logo was still produced.
  • Deadshot and Green Lantern were originally planned to be part of Batman's resistance in the future, rather than Deathstroke and Joker.
• Word of God:
  • Prior to HBO Max picking up the project, most of what people knew about this version of the movie came from Zack Snyder himself. Using the social media platform Vero, Snyder shared what his overall plans were for the original movie (and potential sequels) in bits and pieces, confirming which parts of the movie were his and answering questions left unanswered altogether. More specifically, he confirmed that Darkseid (or pre-godhood Uxas) was the primary antagonist in the "history lesson" flashback, rather than Steppenwolf, and that Aquaman and Wonder Woman killed Steppenwolf by impaling and beheading him, tied the resurgence of the Mother Boxes to the deaths of Superman and Doomsday, and that Martian Manhunter was intended to be revealed as Swanwick. This, in turn, meant that many of the differences were pretty well known among fans and web outlets who did their research, long before the Director's Cut was formally announced.
  • Post-release, Snyder offered some explanations to fan questions. One was that his original intent for the scene with Bruce and Martian Manhunter was supposed to be a Green Lantern, specifically John Stewart and that Hal Jordan (reprised by Ryan Reynolds, though not playing the version of the character from the 2011 film) would be a more distant mentor figure, but was vetoed. He also said that the reason Darkseid lost track of which world the Mother Boxes were left on was because he was gravely injured and their forces sent limping away, and upon returning to Apokolips had to fight a civil war for the throne (possibly the event hinted where Steppenwolf betrayed him), and that by time Darkseid is in a position of power again, everyone who had been with him on Earth is dead.
    Fan: "I have a doubt/confusion... why Darkseid forget that Earth was the planet that defeated him. He came to conquer the planet along with the Mother Boxes, he found the Anti-Life Equation, but...he forget everything. How come he didn't remember that?"
    Zack Snyder: "He almost died when he returned to apocalypse he was in a fight for power and much time passed before he was in a position of power again and by then all who had been with him had been Slayed."
• Word of Saint Paul: Darkseid infamously forgetting that he left the Mother Boxes and Anti-Life Equation on Earth, and spending 5,000 years after his defeat searching for the planet again, was met with derision. Although, his voice actor Ray Porter explained that, on top of having to recover from his wounds, trauma-induced memory loss, and needing to put down an insurrection shortly afterwards, Darkseid has been looking for a multiversal needle in a haystack trying to find one relatively small planet. Porter suggested that he remembered that the Equation was on an Earth, but lost track of which Earth.
• Working Title: "Project 166" was used to refer to the movie by its crew as it was being worked on for the 2021 release.
• You Look Familiar: Samantha Win played Car-Vex, one of the Kryptonian invaders in Man of Steel. She plays the Amazon named Euboea in Wonder Woman and both versions of Justice League.

---