The Justice League cast and the studio representatives all tried to downplay the impact of Joss Whedon’s reshoots, but the theatrical cut demonstrated that the changes made to Zack Snyder's vision for the team-up were extensive. For example, it’s painfully obvious that almost all of the Superman scenes were redone, and others were simply left on the cutting room floor (the Man of Steel’s visit to Alfred Pennyworth in the Batcave, for example).
Kevin Smith recently revealed that an important Justice League scene that would have made a connection with the Knightmare sequence from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was left out of the theatrical cut.
The filmmaker said that when Superman joined the fight, Steppenwolf intended to tempt him into joining his army. The Man of Steel would have had visions similar to those in the Knightmare scene, and one of those visions would have included our very first glimpse of Darkseid!
Superman joins the fight, and teams up with the League to defeat Steppenwolf. However, at one point, Steppenwolf tries to tempt Superman into joining his army; ready for this? This made me so f****** angry, and we see Darkseid for the first time in Superman’s vision, and we see flashes of the nightmare footage that Batman had in Batman v Superman. However, Superman snaps back out of it and delivers the final blow to defeat Steppenwolf (via Comic Book).
It’s obvious that Warner Bros. decided to leave this scene out of the film because it would have necessitated a longer runtime. So it was deleted, although it would have explained Batman’s vision in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
But that’s not all. Smith also revealed Steppenwolf’s fate, which Joss Whedon left out. The final boom tube that transported the defeated general and the Parademons was opened on Apokolips. And Darkseid would have made one more appearance to quickly kill Steppenwolf for failing a second time and planning his own trip to Earth.
Justice League has been in theaters two weeks, and in that time it’s made just $500 million worldwide. Maybe Warner Bros. will interfere less in the making of the next DC Extended Universe film.
