Although early reports indicated that HBO Max would be plowing an additional $20 million to $30 million into finally making the Snyder Cut of Justice League a reality, the real number could end up being at least twice as much.
Whether it comes in at the low or high end of projections, by the time Zack Snyder has put the finishing touches to his original vision for the movie and WarnerMedia shell out for the inevitable marketing blitz to draw as many new subscribers and comic book fans to their streaming service as possible, over half a billion dollars will have been spent on the project, which is an insane level of investment to be thrown at something that still hasn’t made them a single penny of profit.
The Snyder Cut looks set to be unrecognizable from the version of Justice League that first hit theaters back in 2017, and based on the sheer amount of images the filmmaker has posted online since then, as well as his belief that only 25% of his footage made it into the theatrical release, there’s still an awful lot of work to be done to get the reassembled comic book blockbuster over the line.
One of the many major plot points that was ultimately abandoned was the big reveal that Harry Lennix’s Calvin Swanwick, who had become one of the main recurring characters from the Snyder era of the DCEU, was actually Martian Manhunter all along. Scenes had been shot that would have built up to the revelation that J’onn J’onzz had been part of the franchise the whole time, and the smart money is on the Man of Steel and Batman V Superman director using the Snyder Cut to finally bring the fan favorite to the big screen.
Martian Manhunter has always been a key member of the Justice League in the comic books, and while Snyder has kept his cards close to his chest thus far in revealing how he would have factored into his movie adaptation, there’s little chance he’d have teased such an important character without having pretty big plans for them.
Lennix has already stoked the speculation with some cryptic social media posts, and with the second attempt at Justice League set to be almost an entirely new experience, expect Martian Manhunter to be a lot more involved this time around to make up for his previous incarnation amounting to little more than abandoned storyboards.