If you had a dollar for every time you learned or heard about changes to Zack Snyder’s original vision of Justice League before it was edited by committee and under the tutelage of Joss Whedon, you’d probably have as many dollars as the film winded up making at the box office. But let’s take a step back and talk about Arthur Curry. You remember him, right? Bruce Wayne said in that first teaser that Arthur can talk to fish. But like everything else, much of Aquaman’s story in Justice League was left on the cutting room floor.
Now some of this was for story purposes, as James Wan had hoped to introduce Atlantis in his Aquaman film which comes out in a few weeks, rather than seeing it in Justice League itself. You’ll recall from the initial teaser a scene of Arthur on the back of a pickup truck and knocking back a presumably cold one. Didn’t make it into the final product of Justice League as is, unfortunately. But just what was that all about? Well, in a recent interview with WSVN-TV, Jason Momoa discussed that original scene from Zack Snyder’s take on Justice League.
Jason Momoa was asked in the interview just when Aquaman takes place in the DC Universe, and Jason Momoa explained that originally in Zack’s cut, Arthur was with Vulko and Mera, who tell him about an incoming force that will require Arthur’s help. So that leads to Arthur going in the back of a pickup truck and heading home, thus ending his arc in Justice League. From there, you’d cut to him going home and running into a submarine. Then you pretty much transition into Aquaman.
Here, you can watch Momoa discuss Zack Snyder’s original ending for Arthur in his cut of Justice League in the video below at the 1:06 mark:
So it seems that Snyder’s take on Justice League had more connective tissue than many would have assumed, given that his ending for Arthur Curry led right into the next DC Extended Universe film with Aquaman. But like many other things that happened when Justice League went through umpteenth changes, this did not come to pass. Again, unfortunate, but many in fandom still hope for a time when they will get to see Snyder’s original vision of Justice League come to light.
In the meantime, what do you think about how Arthur’s story originally would’ve ended and led into Aquaman? Would you have wanted to see that ending? Let us know in the comments below.
Justice League is available now on home release. Aquaman will be released in theaters on December 21, 2018.