The Snyder Cut is superhero cinema’s Loch Ness Monster. People claim to have seen it, others claim it’s impossible for it to exist, and some say the truth one day might be revealed. Me? I’m an optimistic, hopeful sort of guy. I mean, if we can get the Donner cut of Superman II a quarter century after it was scrapped, why shouldn’t we expect that on some distant day Warner Bros. will let us see what remains of Zack Snyder’s initial vision for Justice League?
The latest update on this most mysterious of prospects comes courtesy of a Twitter exchange between the FilmClickbait team and DC animation director Jay Oliva, who worked on storyboards for Justice League. FilmClickbait snootily claimed that “the “Snyder Cut” is a myth driven by people with a fundamental misunderstanding of the filmmaking process,” only for Oliva to pipe up with an authoritative rebuttal: “It exists. Want a hint of how Cyborg’s origin was integrated to the origin of the Justice League? Well I did a little film that was based on the comic reboot in 2011.”
Ouch! While this is obviously a bit embarrassing for FilmClickbait, Oliva’s comments also gave us an interesting peek into what we missed out on. The “little film” he’s talking of is Justice League: War, which adapted Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s Justice League: Origin comic.
In that, Victor Stone becomes critically injured when an Apokalyptian boom tube sets off an explosion in his father’s equipment. Stone’s near death and his father realizes the only way to save his life is to fuse him with the Fourth World technology, which results in him becoming Cyborg.
It’s an origin that tallies pretty neatly with the Snyder-shot scenes that made it into the final cut of Justice League. Of course, Ray Fisher’s Cyborg was one of the worst casualties of Warner Bros.’ trimming down of the film, with several scenes devoted to his character ending up on the cutting room floor. From what it sounds like, this origin would have tied him in even more intimately with both Steppenwolf and the eventual arrival of Darkseid in the DCEU.
Oh well, maybe we’ll get to see it someday. Or maybe not. Either way, let us know if you think the Snyder cut of Justice League exists by commenting down below.