New ‘Justice League’ Storyboard Art Revealed by Zack Snyder

It’s been a year since Justice League hit theaters and immediately prompted fans to wonder what director Zack Snyder’s vision for the DC film looked like before he left the project due to a family emergency. That demand hasn’t disappeared and while no “Snyder Cut” of the film has materialized — and it’s unclear if it even exists — Snyder continues to give fans a glimpse into his work on the project, including a new, never before seen storyboard from the film.

Shared earlier this week on Vero, Snyder revealed storyboard art for the scene in the Batcave where the Justice League discussed the Mother Box. The storyboard and caption reveal that Snyder had planned to have the camera moving constantly through the scene and, in order to do so, came up with an eight camera beam splitter rig. You can check out the post (via Reddit) below.

It’s a pretty cool concept from a film making standpoint, but the storyboard also has fans mourning what might have been had Snyder remained on the project. As comments on the Reddit post note, the theatrical release of the film has a variation of the scene in which the League discusses the Mother Box technology, but it’s quite different than Snyder’s vision. In Snyder’s, the scene takes place in the Wayne aerospace hangar as opposed to the Batcave proper and as commenters noted, the finished scene versus the storyboard appears to indicate that the film did a less than ideal job of making the hangar and extension of the Batcave. It also seems to confirm that that the Batcave scenes were fully reshot — assuming Snyder had completed them to begin with.

What filmed footage of Snyder’s version of Justice League exists remains a topic of debate among fans. Snyder’s original cut of Justice League apparently clocked in at around three hours — more than enough to make two movies according to Cyborg actor Ray Fisher. It’s something that Snyder himself teased in a Thanksgiving Day post. Storyboard artist for the film Jay Oliva has also indicated that Snyder’s version exists, and Oliva has gone so far as to state that not only does the footage exist, it’s largely complete save for some VFX and a few odds and ends. And, it’s worth noting, that Oliva’s comments may confirm that this elaborate special rig was actually put to use.

“Other than incomplete vfx and maybe some reshoots for hook ups everything was shot that was storyboarded,” Oliva wrote. “Zack isn’t the kind of director who creates the film in the edit bay. It’s all planned out meticulously from beginning to end. That’s how MoS and BvS was done.”

If that’s the case, then it would be included in the full cut Oliva says was created before Snyder left.

“I think they are responding to people saying that the Snydercut (prior to Whedon’s involvement) does not exist and is not a cohesive story because Zack left,” Oliva said. “It may not be 100 percent polished by all of the planned scenes were shot and edited into a full timeline.”

What do you think about Snyder’s latest behind-the-scenes look at his work on Justice League? Let us know in the comments.

Upcoming DC films include Aquaman on December 21st, Shazam on April 5, 2019, Joker on October 10, 2019, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, and Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020.