A new Zack Snyder storyboard reveals a cut scene from the Snyder Cut of Justice League revealing Harry Lennix’s General Swanwick turning into the DCEU’s Martian Manhunter. One of the longest-held DCEU fan theories was that Swanwick was actually the alien J’onn J’onzz, and this new image not only confirms that to be true, but also reveals yet another major character who was cut from Joss Whedon’s theatrical cut of Justice League.
This reveal comes just when fans start to think they know all there is to know about Snyder’s original version of the film, continuing to show just how drastically it was altered from Snyder’s original plan. With more minutes of his footage missing than there were in the entirety of Whedon’s heavily cut, rewritten, and reshot version it’s not implausible to assume he still has a few more cards up his sleeve.
In the storyboard, we can see Martha Kent visiting Lois Lane, setting up a cut scene Snyder has previously revealed, only now when Martha leaves the apartment, it shows her turn into Martian Manhunter before turning into General Swanwick. This scene was replaced in Whedon’s reshoots with the scene where Martha infamously calls Lois “thirsty.” Snyder’s accompanying caption simply says “this is something that you probably didn’t know,” and the following post confirms this is one of the scenes that wasn’t entirely completed, as he intended to shoot the Harry Lennix portion in LA, which didn’t happen before he left the project.
The full scope of Manhunter’s involvement in the story isn’t known yet, but considering he intended to shoot the Swanwick portion as a pick-up with Lennix means it likely wasn’t more than a cameo setting the character up for Justice League 2. However, with at least 20 minutes of cut scenes featuring the US military, it’s certainly possible he had a bigger role as General Swanwick, although one would assume if Lennix were present on the set for that portion of the shoot would have enabled him to also complete this scene.
As fans continue to campaign for Warner Bros. to release the Snyder Cut, this will surely be added to their efforts. It also adds a new minor wrinkle to the discussion, since it reveals additional photography (even if minor), meaning it’s not simply a matter of completing VFX. While Snyder has a significant portion of the movie completed (Jason Momoa says he’s seen it), it joins a few other scenes he’s specified as being incomplete, specifically Cyborg’s vision inside the Mother Box and Wonder Woman decapitating Steppenwolf.
Some insider estimates have ranged as high as $30-40 million for the Snyder Cut to be completed, but as more and more reveals of this nature come out, it’s clear that’s a low bar for what seemingly amounts to an almost entirely new Justice League movie.
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