As the fifth anniversary of the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League draws near, the filmmaker recently took to Instagram to share a photo from the set along with the following message.
"Eight days from now we mark the fifth anniversary of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Diana: “You said the age of heroes would never come again.” Bruce: “It will. It has to.”
Five years later… and the age of heroes still feels very real."
Since then, Snyder has posted a few more shots (there's one of Jason Momoa as Aquaman, another of Henry Cavill as Clark Kent, as well as the first ZSJL poster and an image of the villainous Darkseid), and the Rebel Moon director has now shared a never-before-seen look at Wayne T. Carr as Green Lantern John Stewart.
Carr was cast as Stewart for the director's cut of Justice League, and filmed a brief cameo for the end of the movie. His scene was cut by studio executives, however, and the character was ultimately replaced by Martian Manhunter in the final version of the film.
"A hero we planned to bring into the Justice League story. Some paths remain unseen… but the green glow is still out there," Snyder captioned his post.
The timing of this photo has led to speculation that Snyder shared the shot as a direct response to the recent Lanterns trailer, which was hit with some backlash for concealing the show's sci-fi/superhero elements. The teaser also included a quick glimpse of a Green Lantern costume, which was met with unfavourable comparisons to the suit Carr wore for his scene.
We have no idea what Snyder is planning for next week's anniversary, but the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse campaigners are hoping for an announcement relating to some sort of Elseworlds project, or a continuation of this story in another medium.
Could we see Snyder step behind the camera for another DC Comics-based film at some point? Snyder and James Gunn have been in contact since the news that the DCEU was being rebooted as the DCU was announced, but the chances of the former returning to the fold seem pretty slim. Still, the fact that Gunn and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran will continue to develop Elseworlds projects means we can't completely rule anything out.
“You know, I’m a pretty open book. I really feel like, you know, if the characters are treated with reverence, and mythologically correct, then I’m down. I’m in,” Snyder said when asked about the DCU relaunch last year. “Let’s see what happens. I’m pretty excited. I mean, we’re going to get Superman pretty soon, so we’ll see what that’s like.”
When asked on Threads if he'd seen Snyder's comments about being "excited for the DCU," Gunn responded: “I didn’t, but I knew it already because he’s texted me. He’s been incredibly supportive throughout this process."