Still upset over the prospect of never getting to see Zack Snyder’s version of Justice League? Well, grab your tissues, because a newly released image from Snyder’s version of the superhero film has teased a heartbreaking death that’ll be sure to get you welling up.
Taking to the social media platform Vero, Snyder shared a still from a scene of his cut of Justice League, which reveals a crucial plot point in Cyborg’s storyline. The black-and-white shot shows Cyborg with his hand pressed against a pane of glass, looking on as his father, S.T.A.R. Labs head Dr. Silas Stone, is apparently burnt alive in what appears to be a containment chamber.
It seems the fire may have been a result of an explosion that involved a Mother Box, a powerful piece of technology that appeared in both Snyder’s Justice League and the theatrical version directed by Joss Whedon. Snyder had planned to explore an alternate history of the Mother Boxes, and has even shared storyboard art that suggested his Justice League would have seen Cyborg discussing the Boxes’ inception, and their connection to the N**** during World War II.
Snyder captioned the still from Silas’ death scene, “You would also cry” teasing the effect his take on Justice League would have on audiences. And watching a beloved hero witness the death of his father from just a few feet away would no doubt be devastating, so Snyder isn’t wrong there.
It’s obvious that Snyder’s vision for Justice League was going to be far darker than Whedon’s, and including a death as emotional as the one intended for Silas would have brought the film to a somber place indeed. But evidently that isn’t what studio Warner Bros. wanted out of Justice League particularly because its predecessor, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, was slammed as a trainwreck largely thanks to its gritty tone.
Rumors about Silas dying in Justice League swirled around the production for months before its November 2017 debut and have continued to the present day, with many speculating that his death would establish the foundation for an eventual Cyborg solo film. A pair of August 2018 tweets from The New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan, who cited a report by Slashfilm, claimed that Silas did indeed die in the original version of Justice League. Buchanan wrote:
“Originally, Joe Morton’s character was killed halfway through, and Cyborg finds a video from him at the end that lets Morton’s lines play over the final montage. Whedon gave those lines to Amy Adams. But Whedon’s reshoots also nixed the Morton death scene, so…a wash?”
In that Slashfilm report, Silas actor Joe Morton confirmed that he filmed a ton of scenes for Snyder’s Justice League that were scrapped when Whedon took over. Morton maintained his hope that the sequences removed from Justice League would be reworked for the Cyborg standalone, and also told IGN that part of the Justice League reshoots involved adjusting Cyborg’s tone to, quote, “lighten up the film.” Keep watching the video to learn how Zack Snyder teases heartbreaking death with new Justice League scene!
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