10 Big Changes That Joss Whedon’s Made To Justice League

DC fans have been glued to the ongoing news about Justice League's ever-changing production for months now. After principal photography was completed by Zack Snyder, an extensive period of reshoots was undertaken by The Avengers director Joss Whedon. Of course, reshoots are par for the course for big Hollywood pictures nowadays, but for Justice League, the process seems to be more transformative than most. At first, we were told that Whedon was simply ushering the movie over the finish line, but over the past few months, more and more stories of major changes being made have come to light. Some things have been removed, while others have been inserted. And then, of course, there've been a number of stylistic or character developments. Whatever it is, all of the following alterations have changed Justice League in significant ways. To be clear, you might want to get a salt shaker ready so that you can take these reports with a healthy pinch of it. That being said, we've deliberately stuck with the more reliable sources, rather than going by the totally unsubstantiated rumours from Reddit and 4Chan. Still, with Warner Bros. not commenting much on what's been going on, we can't be 100% sure of their veracity. With that out of the way, read on for 10 major changes that've been made to Justice League throughout the course of its reshoots. 10) Lots More Banter It'll come as a surprise to no one who's been following the development of the DC Extended Universe that the reshoots have pushed Justice League in a lighter direction. Since both Man of Steel and Batman V Superman were heavily criticized for their dark and grim feel, the franchise has been trying to course-correct to bring their output closer in tone to Marvel. Likewise, if there's one thing that Joss Whedon brings to the table, it's quip-happy dialogue. Joe Morton, who plays Cyborg's father Victor Stone in the movie, revealed a couple of months ago that at least some of the reshoots were oriented around increasing the film's humour. He also let on that this was due to studio execs pushing for things to move away from the darkness of previous movies. "I think what I heard was that there was a need from the studio to lighten up the film in a way," Morton said. "That the film felt too dark." We should point out that even when Snyder was helming there was still more humour in Justice League than in BvS (as evidenced by last year's Comic-Con trailer), but it seems Warner Bros. is adamant that the film's tone be as bright as possible. 9) Iris West Erased As well as giving us our first look at the likes of Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg, Justice League will also set up their supporting casts of characters. So, we'll meet newcomers such as Amber Heard's Mera, Aquaman's queen, Barry Allen's dad Henry (Billy Crudup) and Willem Dafoe's Atlantean advisor Vulko over the course of the movie. Another figure we expected to get our first glimpse of was Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Barry's love interest. Originally, her role in Justice League was intended to set up her appearance in The Flash's solo movie, initially pencilled in for 2018. However, as those plans have been altered, so has Clemons' inclusion in JL. After an advance screening of the movie, it was reported by fans who'd been lucky enough to attend that Iris West was nowhere to be seen in the cut that they watched. Assuming that Clemons' scenes aren't inserted back into the movie before its release, this is an intriguing deletion that might not bode well for the actress' expected role in the upcoming Flashpoint. 8) Return To Gotham While not everything about BvS was a success, one thing fans really did take to was Ben Affleck's performance as Batman. If he calms down his crazed murdering antics in future films, he could go on to become the definitive portrayal of the character. It's no surprise, then, that Justice League looks to be capitalizing on Batfleck's popularity by marking him out as the leader of the League. The reshoots seem to have doubled down on the Batman love even further as it's been confirmed that more scenes set in Bruce Wayne's homeland of Gotham City were filmed as part of the movie's second bout of production in Bedfordshire, UK. We don't know what these additional sequences contain, but Gotham-based police cars were glimpsed on set. It's possible, then, that we might see more interactions between the Caped Crusader, the League and Commissioner Gordon, as played for the first time by Spider-Man's J.K. Simmons. Let's hope so, as the scenes between these characters seen in the trailers so far look like a lot of fun. 7) Wonder Woman Embellished DC fans may love Batfleck, but it's probably fair to say that there's only one DCEU hero who's truly caught the world's attention. Her extended cameo in BvS already got people excited, but Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman totally blew away the competition with her triumphant solo movie. The critical and commercial adoration the film received is definitely something the studio will be looking to recreate with Justice League. It makes sense, then, that the reshoots would go some way to increasing Gadot's involvement. In particular, evidence suggests that we'll get some flashbacks to Diana's time in World War I. Likewise, Wonder Woman's Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen were also added to the cast, as more backstory connecting Themyscira with Apokolips and Steppenwolf was introduced into the narrative. On the one hand, emphasizing a character we already know and love over the members of the League we've yet to meet could be a double-edged sword. Still, it's hard to complain about the news that we'll get more Wonder Woman. 6) No Lex Luthor Not many fans reacted positively to Jesse Eisenberg's wholly un-Lex Luthor-like performance as Lex Luthor in BvS last year, so his promised cameo in Justice League wasn't expected to be the highlight of the movie. But hey, we thought maybe it could go someway to fixing his portrayal of Supeman's nemesis. As it happens, it looks like we'll have to wait another day to see that, as Eisenberg's scenes have been reportedly cut from Whedon's version of the movie. As with the report about Kiersey Clemons, the news came to light after the advanced screening of Justice League, so it seems pretty legit. On the whole, Luthor's removal from the movie shouldn't effect things too much. However, it will neuter his importance in BvS, where a lot was made of his prophecies that "demons from the sky" were coming to invade Earth. Not to mention that bit where he was seen potentially conferring with Steppenwolf. Hopefully Lex's cameo will be at least be released as a deleted scene at some point so we can at last get some answers to these head-scratching moments. 5) ... Or Deathstroke? About a year ago, the internet went wild when it was announced that Deathstroke was coming to the DCEU. Not only that, but it was revealed in the coolest way possible - with a clip of the character in action! Unfortunately, the following 12 months haven't been kind to Slade Wilson. First, it was revealed that Joe Manganiello's assassin would not be the main villain of The Batman after all, with his role possibly being completely cut from the upcoming solo film. Then, evidence mounted that Deathstroke wouldn't even be featured in Justice League, either. A lot of this rumour hinges on the reveal that Lex has been removed as well. Last year, Zack Snyder shared a storyboard which seemed to show a meeting between Deathstroke and Lex. Specifically, it looked like it depicted the mercenary busting Luthor out of prison. It doesn't take a genius to assume, then, that if Lex has fallen victim to the cutting room then so has his rescuer. From Whedon's point of view, why would he clutter up the movie with characters who might not even go anywhere? 4) Danny Elfman Onboard We've already established that Warner Bros. are trying to distance Justice League from the tone of previous DCEU entries, and one surefire way to do that is with its score. Perhaps that's why Joss Whedon replaced Junkie XL - who had provided the music for the movie under Zack Snyder - with Danny Elfman. As the composer of two of the most recognizable superhero movie themes ever in 1989's Batman and 2002's Spider-Man, Elfman's an incredibly safe choice. Seeing as he also contributed to Avengers: Age of Ultron, he should work well for Whedon again on Justice League. Elfman has since confirmed that he'll be using John Williams' classic Superman theme for his JL score, though he'll give it a dark twist - which is to be expected from Tim Burton's frequent collaborator. Let's just hope he finds a place for his classic Michael Keaton Batman theme, too. 3) Two Post-Credits Scenes Ah, the post-credits scene! As popularized by Marvel, the extra sequence hidden in the bit of the movie no one usually pays any attention to has become a welcome tradition of superhero films. Except DC's output, that is, as the DCEU has so far mostly avoided this trope of their biggest rival (only Suicide Squad featured a post-credits scene). Given that former Marvel man Whedon is now involved, though, it seems like DC might be warming up to the idea. As reported just the other week, we learned that Justice League might feature not one, but two post-credits sequences. In other words, likely a complete reheat of the Marvel model - one in the middle of the credits and another at the end. Not that we're complaining. These type of scenes serve a purpose by either teasing a sequel or wrapping up a character's story or providing a final joke, depending on the movie. There's been no word about what these scenes will contain, but the possibilities are endless. There could be a tease for Aquman, the next DCEU film on the slate. Or maybe an appearance from Green Lantern or Martian Manhunter? But what it probably won't feature is a cameo from Darkseid... 2) Darkseid Is Cut Since the infamous Knightmare sequence in BvS, when Batman was seen battling Parademons in a post-apocalyptic wasteland patterned with Omega symbols, it's been clear to fans where the DCEU was heading: Darkseid's coming. It was a bit of a surprise, then, when it was revealed that the evil lord of Apokolips would not be the big bad of Justice League, with his general Steppenwolf taking that job instead. Still, there were rumours that Darkseid would inevitably turn up for a cameo at the end of the movie, setting up a bigger appearance down the line. Sure, it sounds a lot like Thanos in The Avengers, but it would have pleased DC lovers everywhere to see the rock-faced rascal. Apparently, though, Whedon has removed Snyder's initial plans to include a sequel-baiting cameo for Darkseid in a bid to give the pic a proper conclusion. According to Batman-On-Film, "the Darkseid cameo at the end was removed once Joss Whedon took over and the film’s ending is it’s ENDING.” 1) A New Ending Darkseid's exit from the movie is just a symptom of a bigger change Whedon has allegedly made to Justice League. A far cry from the initial reports that the replacement director was merely following Snyder's vision, we've heard that the entire ending of the film has been reworked in reshoots. As we said in the previous entry, it all hinges on Whedon's quest to give Justice League a finite ending. With Darkseid removed from the picture, it's been reported that Steppenwolf's role will be bolstered in a bid to give him more "credibility as the movie’s big bad." This lessening importance of an ongoing narrative seems to be a consequence of a bigger change of directive at DCEU headquarters. As we've heard recently from Geoff Johns, future movies likely won't be too tightly interlinked. Though this might change depending on how Justice League goes down, we haven't even had any guarantees that there's a sequel in the works. So, will all these changes have the desired effect of improving the long-awaited event movie - much as extensive reshoots turned Rogue One into a success? Or will it render the film a jumbled mess in the region of Fantastic Four? We'll find out quite soon, as Justice League lands on November 17th.