Say what you will about Zack Snyder’s directing style – or Joss Whedon’s, for that matter – but he sure knows a thing or two about lining the fabric of each feature film, be it Watchmen or Man of Steel or the recently-released Justice League, with scores of cute Easter eggs to uncover.
And that’s exactly what we here at WGTC did soon after Justice League‘s arrival on November 17th, when our own Christian Bone compiled a list of subtle references that you may have missed. But it turns out that there’s another DC-related Easter egg hidden away in one of the videos pulled from S.T.A.R. Labs. First spotted by the eagle eyes of Reddit, this moment of fan service comes right around the time when Bruce Wayne and Alfred are combing through the archives in their search for Silas Stone, the estranged father of Victor (AKA Cyborg).
It’s a scene that takes place at the beginning of Justice League, when Bruce and Diana Prince are still in the process of bringing together the world’s greatest superteam. But as you’ll see from the screengrab below, one of the computer monitors makes a direct reference to a S.T.A.R. Labs employee known as “Choi, Ryan.” Yep, you guessed it; that’s the fourth Atom!
First conceived by Gail Simone and Grant Morrison in the 2006 DCU: Brave New World, it’s unclear if this will lead to anything major or, similar to how Spider-Man: Homecoming name-dropped the fan-favorite Miles Morales, whether it merely confirms the existence of Ryan Choi in the DC Extended Universe.
Then again, with both Flashpoint and a standalone Cyborg movie on the horizon, there’s every chance that Atom will appear via some form of cameo in the not-so-distant future. He is, of course, a relatively big character in the comics, so we imagine there will be a small pocket of fans petitioning for his involvement sooner rather than later.
Having stormed theaters two weeks ago, Justice League has since collected $482 million worldwide. It’s yet to clear Warner’s initial target ($600 million), but it should be noted that Zack Snyder’s DC epic continues to perform remarkably well overseas.
