Too many decent collaborators had their work drastically affected when Zack Snyder’s walked away from Justice League in 2017, and handed the baton to Joss Whedon. Reshoots changed character arcs, and left some characters on the cutting room floor. Now that Snyder is returning to the fold to bring his Snyder Cut of Justice League to HBO Max, one actor from the original production is thrilled that the director’s vision is able to be restored.
Irish actor Ciaran Hinds (There Will Be Blood) played the villain Steppenwolf in Justice League, and had to participate in the reshoots after collaborating with Zack Snyder on the original film. Steppenwolf is a powerful minion of Darkseid, who we will see in the HBO Max Snyder Cut, though Steppenwolf still is expected to be the primary adversary. Speaking with NME, Hinds talked about Snyder returning to the project, and said:
It was his dream to realize it, and I think it’s fantastic that he’s got this opportunity to realize what he wanted to do in the first space. He has the chance to recreate what he wanted to do, and I hope it stands up to the trial it’s been given.
In Justice League, Steppenwolf comes to our planet to retrieve three Motherboxes for Darkseid. One is being guarded by the Amazonians, and after they are attacked and bested, they’ll send a warning sign to Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot).
The second is guarded by the Atlanteans. And the third ends up in the grip of S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Silas Stone (Joe Morton), who uses the alien tech to “heal” his son, Victor (Ray Fisher), turning him into Cyborg.
The villain’s visuals and character approach allegedly went under the knife during the reshoots, though Ciaran Hinds, in the same interview, downplays any real interaction that he had with replacement director Joss Whedon or the crew that worked on the theatrical cut of Justice League. The actor said:
All the work I did was almost completely solitary. The pick-ups I did were just in a studio in London. I was a gun for hire who came in to clean up one or two bits they wanted to do, but I really wasn’t there long enough to form any particular opinion apart from trying to help fulfill my contract.
Diplomatic. In the Justice League trailer that Zack Snyder cut for DC FanDome, we saw updated shots of Steppenwolf. But we haven’t yet heard him speak in Ciaran Hinds’s voice. Will he be as chatty as a Bond villain, the way that he ended up being in the theatrical cut of the film? Or will he be a silent menace that unites the members of the Justice League in an effort to prevent him from acquiring the Motherboxes that Darkseid wants and needs.
We don’t know yet when Zack Snyder’s Justice League will be coming to HBO Max, beyond 2021. Some say first quarter of the new year, so stay tuned to this site, and we will bring you the latest as it happens.
