Superman Returning Fight Was Originally at Beginning of ‘Justice League’ According to Marc McClure

It’s no secret that the theatrically-released cut of Justice League varied drastically from director Zack Snyder‘s initial vision, with clues still emerging eight months after its debut about that original vision. Marc McClure, who played Jimmy Olsen in Superman: The Movie and had a cameo as a police officer in Justice League recently noted that Superman’s resurrection was initially much earlier in the film than where it appears in the final product.

“There’s a big fight sequence in the park, where Superman’s statue was. And it was more at the beginning of the film. So it all got kinda changed around,” McClure shared with JVS. “I’m not quite sure why it was, whether it just didn’t work with the story, I think it was such a hard sequence with the fights and everyone together where they wanted to save that moment. That would be my guess on that.”

The ending of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice saw Superman sacrificing himself to kill Lex Luthor’s monstrous creation, with the film’s final shots showing dirt rise off of his grave. Fans knew that Superman would return in some way for Justice League, but the big question was how it would happen.

Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the newly assembled Justice League realize relatively late into the film that Superman would be their biggest ally when it came to defeating Steppenwolf, though the reunion wasn’t entirely welcome. After battling those who resurrected him, Superman returned to Kansas with Lois Lane, only for her to tell him he should help his friends to protect the world.

McClure’s comments about the original structure of the fight could still have included the same trajectory for Superman, though stretched out over a larger chunk of the film. With audiences being excited to finally see the Justice League come together for the first time in a movie, it’s possible that, by resurrecting Superman and then having him leave, the studio thought audiences would have been disappointed to not have seen that dynamic in the story.

Another possibility is that, with Superman having already starred in two films, the studios wanted to allow more time for Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman to demonstrate their personalities to plant the seed for the follow-up solo adventures of the various characters.

With Zack Snyder distancing himself from the final product, it’s unclear if we’ll ever find out how the filmmaker’s original vision for the film would have unfolded.

Justice League is out now on Digital HD and Blu-ray.

Why do you think the placement of the fight was rearranged? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T YouTube, JVS]