Martian Manhunter Replaced This Superhero In Zack Snyder's Justice League
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Now that Zack Snyder's Justice League has finally come to HBO Max, director Zack Snyder is not holding back any details on what he planned for Justice League or the additional two movies that were meant to finish his DCEU story arc. It's a bittersweet moment for fans: They finally got his version of the superhero film, yet are now teased with the enticing but most likely doomed sequels. On top of that, Snyder revealed that while the Snyder Cut was billed as his pure vision, unadulterated from what the studio wanted, there is still one scene that had to change.
At the very, very end of his Justice League – past the heroes' happy days, Lex Luthor's (Jesse Eisenberg) shenanigans, and the explosive epilogue – Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) hears a strange sound outside his house. He finds a stoic green alien, cape dramatically billowing behind him, who warns that Darkseid is not done and that there's a war coming. It's Martian Manhunter, the alter ego of Man of Steel's General Swanwick (Harry Lennix), who appeared once earlier in the film disguised as Martha Kent. After a brief chat about how they will join forces, Bruce — desperate for just one moment of peace — goes back to bed and the movie ends.
However, it turns out that Snyder originally wanted a different green hero to bring ill tidings to Batman's doorstep.
Snyder wanted to introduce Green Lantern at the end
In another timeline, it would have been Green Lantern flying in to proclaim his aid to Bruce. Snyder said to Vanity Fair, "We shot a version of this scene with Green Lantern, but the studio really fought me and said, 'We really don't want you to do Green Lantern.' So I made a deal with them, and they let me do this [instead]."
Now, we did get one Green Lantern in the film — Yalan Gur fell to Darkseid in the past and lost his precious ring — but we didn't get the Justice League's Green Lantern. For anyone unfamiliar with the comics, just know that there are several Green Lanterns at once, making up the universe-wide Green Lantern Corps. Snyder would have brought in John Stewart, DC's first Black superhero to join Batman and the crew. Not only that, but he would have brought in Ryan Reynolds' Green Lantern — from the maligned Green Lantern of 2011 — to join Stewart and Yalan Gur (via The Hollywood Reporter).
However, Warner Bros. had a somewhat promising reason to not let him use Stewart: "They were like, 'We have plans for John Stewart and we want to do our own announcement.' So I said all right, I'll give you that. So [Martian Manhunter] was the compromise," he said. HBO Max does have a Green Lantern series in the works, though it's unclear just which characters will be in it. So while fans may be disappointed they didn't get Stewart in Zack Snyder's Justice League, there's still hope for seeing him on-screen.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is available to stream now on HBO Max.