Aquaman’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Says No Black Manta in the Snyder Cut of Justice League

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, the Aquaman baddie who has recently taken over your Sunday night TV as part of the cast of HBO’s Watchmen, says that the character of Black Manta was never slated to appear in Justice League, and that if the fabled “Snyder Cut” of the movie were ever to be released, his character would not be part of it. The actor took to Twitter moments ago as of this writing, and (as you might expect from anyone in the DCEU world), when he asked fans what was up, one of the very first responses he received was whether he was in the director’s cut of the film.

Snyder is still the nominal director of Justice League, but he left the film following a family emergency, and Marvel’s The Avengers filmmaker Joss Whedon stepped in to get the film ready for release. He reshot a significant amount of footage and seemingly rewrote a fair amount of the film. The movie’s length was also reportedly cut significantly at the behest of Warner Bros. Pictures, who reportedly wanted to shorten it in order to cram in more opening weekend screenings (likely because both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad has massive openings followed by enormous week to week dropoffs).

The resulting movie seemingly bears little resemblance to what the filmmaker had wanted to make — and that’s even before you add in variables like a cancelled sequel that would have seen the League face off against Darkseid, the nephew of Steppenwolf and one of DC’s greatest villains. All of this has led to a rabid group of fans online who have been peppering Warner Bros. and basically anyone who will listen with requests and inquiries about the “Snyder Cut.”

Of course, even if he isn’t in it (and misspelled Snyder’s last name), we’re betting hardcore Snyder fans won’t be too disappointed in him. Moments after the tweet above, I asked a follow-up: what does Abdul-Mateen think of Snyder’s feature film take on Watchmen?

Abdul-Mateen can be seen on Sunday nights on HBO’s Watchmen, and fans are expecting more information about Aquaman 2 soon. The actor will reportedly reprise his role as Black Manta in that sequel, but little else has been revealed one time.