Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Steppenwolf Was Built From Scratch for the Snyder Cut

Nearly four years separated Warner Brothers’ Justice League theatrical release from the wildly anticipated Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Now that the fabled Snyder Cut has been released thanks in part to HBO Max, the four-hour feature has become a hit with fans and critics alike. While the two versions of the movie do share similarities, the additional two hours let allow the extended cut time to breathe while introducing additional concepts.

Interestingly enough, Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) is a character that appeared in both versions of the film. Even then, he was a completely different asset between the two cuts. We recently caught up with the VFX gurus at Weta Digital, one of the primary visual effects vendors behind the feature.

“He’s built from scratch. He doesn’t share anything with the 2017 one,” Weta’s Anders Langlands tells us. “It’s interesting because the new one is actually the old one.”

As the visual effects supervisor tells us, the version of Steppenwolf fans see in Zack Snyder’s Justice League was the same version teased by the director at the end of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. He was then changed when Joss Whedon took over Justice League before reverting to his original design for the director’s cut.

“Because this Steppenwolf was the original design for Steppenwolf before he was changed in 2017,” Langlands adds. “As Kevin [Andrew Smith] points out, you see a glimpse of Zack’s design for Steppenwolf at the end of Batman v. Superman, in a Kryptonian form, o it was really just taking a design that was there and then just building him fresh. So yeah, really has nothing to do with the 2017 version. He’s his own character.”

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is now streaming on HBO Max.

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