Justice League: Zack Snyder Directed the Snyder Cut's Martian Manhunter Reveal Over Zoom

Zack Snyder says it was 'really weird' directing new bits for the Snyder Cut over Zoom, which [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

Zack Snyder says it was "really weird" directing new bits for the Snyder Cut over Zoom, which allowed the filmmaker to complete Zack Snyder's Justice League amid the coronavirus pandemic. Snyder previously revealed he used the video chat software to direct Ezra Miller as the Flash actor was overseas filming Fantastic Beasts 3, and now the filmmaker says the same process was used to capture a top-secret cameo. Spoilers for the Justice League Snyder Cut. After Martha Kent (Diane Lane) and Lois Lane (Amy Adams) grieve for Superman (Henry Cavill), "Martha" shapeshifts into the red-eyed Martian Manhunter — the green-skinned true form of Calvin Swanwick (Harry Lennix).

"We had to do it over Zoom because [Miller's] in England and I couldn't travel, so we just did it over Zoom. I only needed a couple of shots of him, but that was pretty crazy," Snyder told Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon. "I'd never done that. I did Diane Lane the same way for her little [bit], where she comes out and does her Martian Manhunter cameo. That shot where she comes out the door and looks around, that shot we didn't have, so I had to get that."

On directing scenes virtually, Snyder added, "It was weird. They had me on an iPad on a stand so Diane could come over and talk to me. It was really weird, but it's cool."

Other actors who filmed new bits for the Snyder Cut include Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Ray Fisher, Joe Manganiello, Amber Heard, and Jared Leto. Snyder's four-hour director's cut ends with Batman (Affleck) leading an insurgency against a Superman enslaved by Darkseid (Ray Porter), a sequence the studio didn't want Snyder to shoot.

"What was hard was, we only shot for three days. We shot the Batman-Joker scene, and then we did a couple of pickups. But literally, no one was together," Deborah Snyder, the director's wife and producing partner, previously told CINEMA-Magazin. "It was hard from a scheduling point of view, and it was also hard to plan it because everyone is just starting to come back to shooting after COVID. But we were still figuring out what the restrictions were, and how to do it safely."

"But so much so that we had to shoot Jared and Ben on separate days because we couldn't push the shoot anymore when everyone was available," she added, "because we had to deliver the visual effects by Christmas in order to make the March date. So time definitely was not on our side, even though you would think it was.

Zack Snyder's Justice League and the black-and-white version titled Justice League: Justice Is Gray are now streaming on HBO Max.

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