Zack Snyder's Justice League already had a great deal of momentum built up for its release, and it delivered in a big way upon its arrival to HBO Max on March 18 . The four-hour epic helped to showcase director Zack Snyder's full vision for the DCEU team-up movie to the world while fulfilling promises of blockbuster effects and a much more cohesive story this time around.
One of the most notable differences between the original from 2017 and the Snyder Cut is that the 2021 re-release utilized much scarier designs for multiple characters and featured much more violence as a part of the action. Examples of this violence include Diana Prince chopping Steppenwolf's head off and people being ripped completely in half, which could not be utilized in the 2017 PG-13 rated movie that debuted in theaters.
This movie also included heroes and villains that were nowhere to be seen in the canon movie, although the VFX team who brought the Snyder Cut to life recently spoke on what they got to do with a big hero who made it in this time around
SNYDER CUT VFX TEAM TALKS GREEN LANTERN
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant , three members of the Weta Visual Effects team discussed some of their experience working on Zack Snyder's Justice League . Specifically, the team touched on having the opportunity to bring the Green Lantern legacy to the big screen within the DCEU for the first time.
Looking back on the Lantern's debut in the fight against Darkseid, animation supervisor Simeon Duncombe was particularly excited not only to bring more depth to the hero but getting to do it without "dealing with a rating anymore." He clearly wanted to see more of the Lantern since "he only ended up in maybe two or three shots" in the theatrical cut, but he was fleshed out much more in the Snyder Cut:
"It was awesome. Because, again, that was another thing that we lost in the 2017 version. That was one of the original intentions, to see the Green Lantern. I think he only ended up in maybe two or three shots in the 2017 version, so to see those shots come back was really exciting. To expand on those shots was fun, particularly with the idea that we weren't dealing with a rating anymore."
Duncombe also revealed that the team "changed up his death" by having "Darkseid reaching out to grab the ring" after chopping the Lantern's arm off.
"We were kind of going R-Rated, so we changed up his death. At the time we were going through these shots, and doing some quick pre-vis on how that beat would flesh out. Anders proposed the idea of Darkseid reaching out to grab the ring as an additional moment as well. And we thought, "Oh yeah, that'd be pretty cool." Maybe he's going to power up, we don't know."
After proposing the idea to Snyder, the team was thrilled knowing that it "was just a nice little goodie bag for the fans," along with it being a cool moment in the movie. Even though it was a short moment in the Snyder Cut, the team "had no idea that it was going to be so well received" :
"We wrapped that up and pitched it to Zack and D.J., and they loved it. It was super exciting, and we knew it was just a nice little goodie bag for the fans as well. You're always going to approach that stuff really enthusiastically, knowing that it will be well received. I had no idea that it was going to be so well received, given that it's such a small amount of screen time in a four hour film."
BEWARE MY POWER, GREEN LANTERNS LIGHT
The classic Green Lantern character has been a topic of many conversations surrounding the Snyder Cut, especially since the canon DCEU has brought almost no sign of that mythology through nine movies to date. It's clear that the VFX team wanted to do the character justice even with limited screen time, with the Snyder Cut giving a little more shine to the Green Lantern ring and its powers.
Snyder had also teased the idea of having Ryan Reynolds' Hal Jordan return for the Snyder Cut , although it would've been in a secondary role to another member of the Green Lantern Corps. Reynolds used this rumor for plenty of laughs , as he has done many times with his iteration of the Green Lantern, but it seems that Snyder was truly open to the idea of this hero joining the fight somehow.
It still remains to be seen how much the Green Lantern Corps will come into play in the canon DCEU, even with an HBO Max series featuring this team in early development . With very little being officially confirmed, fans are still on the edge of their seats waiting for these core members of the Justice League to make their debut.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is available to stream on HBO Max.
