DELETED: Kent Farm. Superman brings Lois here. however, he is still very confused and not knowing what’s happening. Bystanders are looking at him and clicking his photos. This confuses him further and he actually tries to attack the civilians with his laser-eyes before Lois manages to calm him down. Superman tells her that “the voices won’t shut up”. Later, Martha shows up here and Clark and Lois are already inside the house. Clark is calmer now but still very confused – his powers are going haywire and his senses are heightened.
Martha gives the “Picture the world as an Island. Follow my voice and come back to me” speech from MoS. It seems to calm him down. Later, Clark is wearing his shirt when he sees Pa Kent (Yes, Costner was here too) out in the fields. He goes out to see him. Pa Kent talks about “embracing who you really are”. He tells Clark that “you have to make peace with who you are. You have the power to change the world and you can do that as anyone, good character or bad.” Clark finally embraces Superman as a part of him when Lois walks out. Clark confirms their engagement, Lois breaks down because she wasn’t strong enough. Then, Martha comes out too as Clark decides to help the League and flies off. That’s how it happened in my version. I may have paraphrased some dialogue but that was basically it.
DELETED: Clark heads up to meet Alfred and get his suit.
DELETED: Steppenwolf’s second conversation with Heggra. Now that he has all three Mother Boxes – her return to this world can begin.
CHANGED: Bruce’s conversation with Diana after Superman returns. Diana comes in to pop Bruce’s shoulder and tend to his injuries. Bruce reveals that he is willing to die to save the world. In fact, he says “he deserves to die because of what he’s done. He’s killed people and nothing, not even his hate for Superman can justify killing like that”. Diana tells him that “he’s changed now” but Bruce remains adamant that he can only atone himself by sacrificing his life.
CHANGED: Bruce’s Batmobile is headed to certain death during the finale when Wonder Woman and Aquaman interfere and save his life. They tell him that dying in battle won’t do anything and he must live to keep the fight going.
ALTERNATE ENDING WE WERE SHOWN: Cyborg tries to separate the Mother Boxes while Heggra keeps trying to talk him away. Furious, Steppenwolf grabs him and rips him apart – essentially killing him.
CHANGED: Superman joins the fight and teams up with the League to defeat Steppenwolf. However, at one point, Steppy tries to tempt Superman into joining his army and we see Darkseid (for the first time) in Superman’s vision and we see flashes of the Knight-mare footage. However, Superman SNAPS back from it and delivers the final blow to Steppy, defeating him.
DELETED: Steppenwolf is killed by Darkseid on Apokolips. Darkseid intends to come to Earth to “meet the Kryptonian”.
DELETED: Aquaman meets Mera off the village coast and agrees to come back. Barry steps into the library, Iris smiles at him cutely.
DELETED: Bruce and Barry place Victor’s “body” in the Batcave. Bruce comments that “his organic tissue is dead but it may be possible to reignite his mechanical parts”. Barry promises to help however he can.
DELETED: Lois introduces Perry White to “Clark Kent a.k.a Superman“.
The original after credit scene that was shot in principal photography was Bruce being woken in the night in his lake house by a green light and being visited by Tomar Re and Kilowog. It was cut fairly early on during post.
Interesting, right? There’s a lot here, and while perhaps not all of it would have worked in the final cut, it’s still a shame that Warner Bros. removed so much from Zack’s version. A lot of these scenes sound great and would no doubt have added some more depth to the pic, not to mention they’d give a lot of the characters additional room to develop – which we all know most of them needed.
As mentioned before, the studio hasn’t commented yet on whether or not we’ll ever get to see Snyder’s original vision, but with the online petition for them to release it only growing bigger and bigger by the day, and demand for a Director’s Cut really heating up, Warner Bros. would be foolish if they didn’t give us an alternate version of Justice League. Not to mention they risk losing a lot of fans if they don’t.
Plus, much like the Ultimate Edition of Batman V Superman before it, it’ll open up another stream of revenue for WB. And lord knows the studio needs it now, considering JL may wind up losing $100 million when all is said and done.