After Warner Bros. decided they didn’t like the look of Zack Snyder’s rough cut of Justice League back in early 2017, they made the fateful decision to completely rework the movie. What eventually slithered into multiplexes was two separate films crudely Frankensteined together, complete with ropey special effects, a nonsensical plot and downright ugly visuals. But probably the biggest casualty of the process was Ray Fisher’s Cyborg (well, him and Henry Cavill’s upper lip).
Snyder had planned for Cyborg to be at the heart of the movie, with the story being something of an origin for him. There were extensive flashbacks, time spent understanding how he felt being in the suit and multiple subplots about him being kept alive by Apokalyptian technology. It would also have been something of a breakout role for Fisher, who was understandably dismayed when most of his performance was trashed. On top of all that, simply having a disabled African-American character at the core of your movie is a pretty damn rare thing in Hollywood.
All of that makes it eminently understandable that he was feeling emotional on a live stream soon after the announcement. He told fans that the decision to resurrect the movie “means a lot,” before leaving the frame to collect himself. When he returned, he addressed the tireless fan efforts to #ReleasetheSnyderCut, saying:
“It means the world to the Snyders and it has met the world to me. Thank you. Thank you.”
https://twitter.com/DCMovieNews2/status/1263467704897474560?s=20
Fisher’s central role in whatever Zack Snyder’s Justice League turns out to be was underlined by him being the first person the director called once he’d gotten the green light. His reaction, perhaps understandably, was:
“You’re kidding me, right?”
Now in 2021, we get to see the performance that we should have gotten back in 2017. Let’s hope it lives up the sky-high expectations.
Published: May 22, 2020 01:50 pm