Admittedly, the tangibility of a Justice League director’s cut is growing daily, but confirmation has yet to expel itself from the horse’s mouth. Although DCEU storyboard artist Jay Oliva revealed late last week that the entirety of “Zack’s vision” was indeed shot, the “100% polished” version does not exist. At least, not yet.
In the meantime – while we await corroboration that Snyder has indeed called Warner Bros.’ bluff and will foot the bill to complete his cut of Justice League – a new Scanline VFX video has unveiled additional footage from the supergroup feature in which Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) goes toe-to-toe against Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and a Parademon.
Additionally, Redditor BeenTryin has juxtaposed the theatrical and extended version for your viewing pleasure, and you can check it out down below.
JL: Extra couple of frames showing Wonder Woman smirking after abusing a Parademon thanks to a ScanlineVFX video (with a comparison to the theatrical cut)
byu/BeenTryin inDC_Cinematic
Now, as for why what’s arguably become the trademark smirk of Diana Prince – also evident in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice – was ultimately cut, no reason was specified. Nonetheless, it’s no secret that there was a plethora of content trimmed from Justice League to ensure the 2017 blockbuster complied with several stipulations set by Warner Bros., most important of which was a sub-two hour runtime. So, therein could lie the reason.
Circling back to the Snyder cut, and much like the long-rumoured departure of Ben Affleck from the role of Caped Crusader in the DCEU, a lot of what you’ve heard regarding the elusive director’s cut has been scuttlebutt from relatively unreliable sources. Oliva, on the other hand, is someone with an extensive filmography, not to mention he’s worked alongside Zack every step of the way.
As such, what he says does carry a lot more weight than your run of the mill Justice League rumor. Be sure to keep that in mind when falling on either side of the fence, and with Comic-Con coming up next month, hopefully we’ll get confirmation one way or another quite soon.