9 photos that show how 'Zack Snyder's Justice League' looks without visual effects
Kirsten Acuna
- Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Zack Snyder's Justice League."
- HBO Max released a small five-minute look at what went into creating its four-hour "Snyder cut."
- The behind-the-scenes clip contains candid footage of the cast and crew laughing on set.
Batman leads the heroes into Steppenwolf's hideout.
It looks like the heroes climb up a very large tower.
Batfleck looks a bit different without the cape.
Most of the structure surrounding him is green screen as well.
Aquaman rescues a sailor from his sinking ship early in the film.
The ship gets caught in a terrible storm on the ocean. Arthur Curry brings him into the local bar.
Jason Momoa was really doused with water on set while standing atop a massive prop.
A man clung to the side of the boat.
The Amazons fly off the backs of horses during a flashback scene where they fight off Darkseid.
The above scene takes place during the "Age of Heroes" backstory that Wonder Woman recounts to Bruce Wayne.
In reality, some were pulled into the air, but there weren't any horses on set.
A giant green fixture — with a saddle — stood in for the steed.
The heroes unite on screen celebrating the defeat of Steppenwolf at the film's end.
Superman is front and center in his black suit.
Ray Fisher was wearing a special outfit for that scene while Superman's on-set costume was blue and red.
One of the biggest differences is that Henry Cavill is wearing an entirely different Superman suit. He never filmed Snyder's "Justice League" wearing a black suit.
Snyder always wanted the suit to be black, but Warner Bros. wouldn't allow it. The director recalled arguing with Warner Bros. to use the black suit in the original film during a conversation at Justice Con and was told they didn't think it was a good idea.
"I knew it was the correct evolution for him when he rose from the dead that he would be in the black suit," said Snyder. "There was this obsession with it being funny or light or something. And for some reason the perception of the black suit made everyone feel like, 'Oh, that sounds like you're just trying to make the movie dark and scary.'"
Though Snyder backed down at the time, he said he experimented to make sure they could change the color of the suit later on if needed.
When Superman is resurrected, he's met by Aquaman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Cyborg.
The team is concerned with how he may react to being back from the dead.
There really were flowers and barricades behind them, but that was it.
The rest of Metropolis was green screen behind them. Ray Fisher is seen again in a special suit to film scenes as Cyborg.
The Amazons seal the gate of the Penetralium with large hammers.
The Amazon women are seen in a long, dark hallway as Hippolyta runs past them with one of the three Mother Boxes.
In reality, the women were striking rectangular green blocks and weren't inside any structure.
The hammers (though likely a lot lighter than real ones), weren't added in digitally. The actors held those.
The Justice League exited a ship to fight off Steppenwolf at the movie's end.
The team steps off of Batman's ride as they discuss their game plan.
They were really in something that resembled a ship, but the entire background was green screen.
Not all of the plant life was added digitally. Some of it was really on set.
Jason Momoa arrived in the nick of time to help slow down a giant wave from submerging the Justice League under Gotham Harbor.
Arthur Curry allows the Justice League to escape.
In reality, Momoa wasn't fending off any waves.
Crew on the sidelines standing on some steps were watching him from afar.
We saw Ben Affleck's Batman and Jared Leto's Joker share their first dialogue in the DCEU in an apocalyptic nightmare of the future.
"Zack always felt the ultimate for him was to see Batman and Joker together in a scene," Snyder's producing partner and wife, Deborah Snyder, told Insider.
"It was something we thought about while working on the movie but couldn't figure out how it would fit. So when we had this opportunity to do the movie again he said he really wanted to do it."
In reality, Zack Snyder filmed this scene from his backyard during the pandemic.
Deborah Snyder told Insider's Jason Guerrasio the intricacies of how the dream sequence came together, saying it was shot over the course of three days.
Deborah Snyder said it took a few conversations with Jared Leto before he was convinced to return to the role.
"He was like 'I don't know,' then it went to 'Okay, maybe' and then it was finally, 'Okay,'" she said.
According to the film's production notes, Snyder filmed the sequence in his backyard.
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