Justice League The Snyder Cut Trailer Breakdown and Analysis

After years of drama, hundreds of hashtags, and a lot of discourse we finally got our first look at the Snyder Cut of Justice League. You might say “isn’t this just a director’s cut, what’s the big deal?” and honestly looking at this new trailer you might not be wrong. But for a lot of fans this moment has been a longtime coming and if you’re a big DC Comics head then there are some interesting deep-cut moments to dig into.

If you somehow haven’t watched it yet, you can check it out here…

So without further ado let’s dive in…

Darkseid

Uxas is here baby. As teased in Zack Snyder’s social media posts, Darkseid will play a huge part in the new cut of Justice League.

The opening of the trailer (which is set to a very on the nose song choice of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen) shows a younger looking Darkseid wielding a large weapon and looking generally menacing.

Does that weapon look like a farm tool to you? If it does then this could hint that we’re going to be seeing the New 52 version of the character who was a cosmic farmhand that killed the gods in order to gain their power and create the planet of Apokolips. That sounds very Randian and rather up Zack Snyder’s alley.

There is also the other option which is that he’s holding a sledgehammer, to denote just how subtle Snyder’s messaging and symbolism will be in the new cut of Justice League.

Did you know Superman is basically Jesus? Well, you will in this four hour edit of the superhero team-up flick!

We wrote more about this version of Darkseid right here.

The Hall of Justice

Though we only get a glimpse of the terrible fate that the Justice League may have to face, we do get to see a demolished Hall of Justice–which is pretty funny as we never saw the Hall completed or even under construction–in the ruins of a city swarming with Parademons. We know that those are the minions of Apokolips and are usually controlled by Darkseid or whoever he gives his all powerful Boomstick to.

The only time we’ve ever seen them in the DCEU continuity is in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice during Bruce Wayne’s psychedelic dream sequence where he has a dark vision of the future where Darkseid has apparently terraformed the Earth which is under the control of a fascist-Injustice-style Superman. 

It’s very likely that this is a vision of a potential future, much like Wayne’s vision in Batman v. Superman. And of course, Snyder made his disdain for “Saturday morning cartoons” known during a spat with a critic a few hours before this trailer was released. Since the Hall of Justice originated on the Super Friends animated series well…you do the math.

Aquaman 

One of the best things about the theatrical cut of Justice League is the absolutely badass introduction of Arthur Curry as Aquaman. Though the character was soft-rebooted in James Wan’s spectacular solo-superhero movie we get a lot of shirtless Jason Momoa action here hinting at a bigger role in Snyder’s new cut. We don’t get much else with him though we do see him getting really wet in numerous water-soaked set pieces and who doesn’t want to see that in their lives? 

But then there’s the question of who this is…

Is this Arthur in full and regal Atlantean armor before he had accepted his role as King in the Aquaman movie? Based on another shot in the movie that appears to show Arthur stumbling on a suit of armor and a trident, it’s possible.

Or is this more of the flashback sequence we saw in the theatrical cut of the film, which explored how DC heroes of earlier eras rose up to fight the hordes of Apokolips?

Batman

One of the key pieces of the arc of this movie (any cut) was always Bruce Wayne’s revelation that the world needed Superman, and needs heroes in general. This shot helps bookend Batman‘s line at the end of the trailer about the team being “united” against Steppenwolf and Apokolips.

Black Suit Superman

We all knew this was coming but we do get a brief momentary glance of Superman in the Fortress of Solitude wearing his Black suit. This isn’t technically new as a version of it apparently appeared on the Justice League deleted scenes but the fact that it’s here confirms we will actually get to see Superman in the Black suit in Zack Snyder’s Justice League rather than just walking past it in his icy den (the director had previously released a scene as well)

But there’s more at work with the Man of Steel that we’re still trying to figure out…

Supes appears to be wearing his traditional red and blue suit here, and we’re not sure exactly what’s happening. Could it be part of the sequence where the Man of Steel is resurrected after his battle with Doomsday in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice?

In any case, Supes is back in black in another shot which appears to be him taking on Steppenwolf during the film’s climax.

Cyborg

Zack Snyder has said that Ray Fisher’s Cyborg is “the heart of the movie” in his cut of Justice League, and the character is certainly a little more prominent here.

For one thing, we’re going to see Vic Stone’s origin story explored a little bit, as we see here is time as a college football star for Gotham University.

This quick shot COULD be of a vision Vic sees of the hordes from Apokolips coming to Earth.

In the established Justice League movie continuity, Cyborg’s father saves his son using the magic of the Motherbox. In case you aren’t aware what the alien technology is, the most important thing to know is that they’re a key part of DC’s Fourth World lore–where Darkseid hails from–and play a large part in all iterations of the DCEU’s Justice League.

In the comics they’re essentially superpowered supercomputers created by a scientist on Apokolips, in the movie universe they are mysterious threats which link the mythical worlds of both Atlantis and Themyscira as the powerful world’s tried to hide and destroy the boxes in the far past. 

The new sequence doesn’t really build on any of that lore but it does show one of the boxes killing Cyborg’s father and turning him into Thanos-style dust. Another tragic moment for the young hero and one that will likely drive him to become a reluctant hero and defeat Darkseid.  

There are a couple of interesting new scenes including one where see the hero desperately digging up a grave in a dark cemetery… whose grave is it, well that takes us to the next sequence. 

Maybe it’s his father’s grave he’s trying to dig up. Or perhaps his mother’s. Oh god, what if it’s Martha’s…

The Flash

From what we understand, this shot happens right before the Iris West rescue above, as Barry vibrates through a shop window to stop the young reporter from getting run over by a car.

Barry’s in the speedforce. There’s not much more to say here but we didn’t get to see much of Barry being a speedster in the original cut of the movie and Miller’s version has been more of a cameo character than a true hero.

During the Snyder Cut panel, Snyder teased that Barry would play a larger role and hinted at the Cosmic Treadmill part of Flash canon that he has winked at before. Basically expect to see Barry causing some timey-wimey chaos in this cut. 

Let’s stick with Flash stuff for a minute…

Iris West

Kiersey Clemons is a powerhouse and for this writer the most exciting moment of the film was seeing her appear in a brief moment that appeared to be the first meeting between her version of Iris West and Barry Allen (Ezra Miller).

Iris is a key part of The Flash lore and it was a massive disappointment to find out that she didn’t make it into the final cut of the original movie. Even though there is a lot of cynicism around this cut getting to see Clemons bring Iris to life as part of the wider DC world is actually pretty exciting.

Wonder Woman

Is Diana in Themyscira here? And is this spear an artifact of the flashback battle sequence we saw in the theatrical cut with the Amazons and DC heroes of old taking on Steppenwolf and company?

And no, the little girl she smiles at probably isn’t Donna Troy. We…think.

DeSaad

In a very exciting moment for DC fans the trailer revealed what seemed to be the first appearance of the deep-cut supervillain DeSaad. With his trademark hood and a suspiciously alien face we only get a momentary glimpse of the cosmic antagonist, but with his deep connections to Darkseid it makes sense that he’d appear.

The most interesting thing here is that DeSaad is a key part of the old school–Pre-Crisis–version of the character who was a royal on the planet of Apokolips who killed his whole family in his quest for power.

But as much as we’d love to see more of that dynamic Jack Kirby version of the character, he did play a small role in the New 52 relaunch during a plotpoint which focused on cloning Superman and Parademons. Both of those things are already established in the Snyder-verse–remember Doomsday? So if DeSaad is involved it probably doesn’t change the fact that this is a young Darkseid or Uxas. 

We have more on Desaad here.

Steppenwolf

There’s a new and “improved” and definitely more menacing design for Darkseid herald/henchman/uncle Steppenwolf for this flick, too.

We wrote a little bit more about that new design here.

Uniting the Seven 

Remember that poster for Justice League that said Unite the Seven and then nothing came of it? Well, maybe that was actually about the Aquaman movie’s seven kingdoms? Anyway it was once again hinted at here as Ben Affleck’s Batman says the word “united.”

Of course the big twist here would be if Green Lantern turned up making the Justice League seven heroes instead of six, that was a big rumor going into this movie but it never occurred. Who knows, maybe we will see a Green Lantern in this new four hour cut? If that happens my money is on John Stewart. 

Could we possibly see other members? We speculated on that right here.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League hits HBO Max in 2021… allegedly.