Justice League Snyder Cut ending has a cameo by a superhero that will “blow hard-core fans’ minds”, according to a new in-depth report on Zack Snyder’s Justice League that features the director extensively. It’s unclear who this could potentially be, given some surprises have already been revealed, including Jared Leto as Joker and Harry Lennix as Martin Manhunter. Ryan Reynolds, who infamously played Green Lantern, has already ruled himself out on Twitter. Of course, given the fact that Justice League Snyder Cut doesn’t need to link into the existing DC film universe, it could be an all new character or a new version of an older character being played by a new star.

Vanity Fair brings word of the surprise Justice League Snyder Cut hero cameo, buried deep in a behind-the-scenes look at how Zack Snyder’s Justice League came to be. The report notes that Snyder doesn’t have to bother with “DC’s official time line for the characters” — which leads credence to the possibility that the Justice League Snyder Cut hero cameo is someone we haven’t seen before — and that the director can “let this alt version of the Justice League story wind up wherever he pleases.” Snyder has already done some non-canonical stuff with Leto’s Joker, and Superman’s black suit, after all.

Snyder revealed that he isn’t getting paid for Justice League Snyder Cut, because he wanted creative control that he didn’t have on the original version of Justice League released in 2017 in cinemas. Snyder added: “I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone, and [forgoing a fee] allowed me to keep my negotiating powers with these people pretty strong.” Snyder’s gotten a lot of money to finish his very long version of Justice League though: $70 million (about Rs. 506 crores). That’s on top of the $300 million (about Rs. 2,170 crores) Snyder had when he did all the filming four years ago. The new money has largely gone towards post-production, and very limited reshoots.

Warner Bros. and HBO Max weren’t initially willing to go to these lengths to finish Justice League Snyder Cut, the director said, and were more than happy to release the raw footage that Snyder had on his laptop when he left the film back in 2017: “I was like, ‘That’s a no, that’s a hard no.’ […] Here’s why. One, you get the internet off your back, which is probably your main reason for wanting to do this. Two, you get to feel vindicated for making things right, I guess, on some level. And then three, you get a shitty version of the movie that you can point at and go, ‘See? It’s not that good anyway. So maybe I was right.’ I was like, No chance. I would rather just have the Snyder cut be a mythical unicorn for all time.”

Snyder also revealed that he’s never seen the original Justice League (Review), thanks to his wife and producing partner Deborah Snyder. After sitting through a screening of Joss Whedon’s version at the Warner Bros. studio lot, Deborah and (executive producer) Christopher Nolan told Zack: “You can never see that movie.” A Warner Bros. executive told Vanity Fair: “When we got to see what Joss actually did, it was stupefying. […] Everyone knew it. It was so awkward because nobody wanted to admit what a piece of shit it was.” Of course, that was also said of Snyder’s original two-hour cut of Justice League, with one executive deeming it “unwatchable”.

Justice League Snyder Cut — a three-and-a-half-hour version as envisioned by Snyder — is out March 18 worldwide. It will be available on HBO Max in the US, HBO Go in parts of Asia, and HBO services in Europe. There are no concrete details on a platform for India, but WarnerMedia — which owns HBO — says it’s “in discussions with local and global partners and will have more details shortly.”