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Justice League: Whedon's Reshoots Changed Cyborg's Storyline The Most
Joss Whedon's reshoots of Justice League changed a lot of the movie, but no character was more impacted than Victor Stone aka. Cyborg. As his story exists in the finished Justice League, Cyborg is the outsider of the team. After a nearly fatal accident, Victor Stone is rebuilt with the same type of technology that Justice League's villain, Steppenwolf, uses to try to take over the world. This reconstruction changes Victor emotionally and mentally but also allows him to defeat Steppenwolf.
Cyborg is a character with a plot importance to Justice League, but not much of a thematic one. He's a very tertiary character. The focus of the team is much more on Batman and Wonder Woman, with a third act assist from Superman. Evidently though, in the original Zack Snyder cut of Justice League, Cyborg was going to be much, much more integral.
Responding to a /Film interview with actor Joe Morton, who played Cyborg's father Silas Stone in Justice League, Vulture's senior editor, Kyle Buchanan, shared on Twitter what he knew about Cyborg's changes. According to Buchanan, Cyborg's story took a much more tragic turn in Snyder's Justice League. Silas was originally killed off about halfway through the original cut of the movie. Buchanan isn't explicit about where exactly Silas met his end. However, it's safe to assume the remnants of the moment are still in the final movie. Silas Stone and his fellow STAR Labs employees are still attacked by Steppenwolf. However, the fledgling Justice League manages to save them in the released film.
This wasn't the only major impact Whedon had on Cyborg's story in Justice League either. In Snyder's original vision, Cyborg would find a video from his deceased father at the tail end of the movie. This last message that Silas recorded for his son would then play over Justice League's final montage when the dust settles and Batman decides the world needs the team forever. In the Whedon cut, the montage and the monologue that accompanies it still exists, but they were given to Amy Adams' Lois Lane instead of Morton's Silas Stone.
The implications of Whedon reversing Silas' demise should be obvious. Silas dying at the hands of Steppenwolf (or by some other means) would've had a tremendous impact on Justice League's mood, as well as Cyborg's state of mind. It would've made for a much darker film, which isn't the direction Justice League should've taken.
While the second major change that Whedon made to Cyborg's arc might not seem as huge, there are some important implications. Moving the final monologue from Morton to Adams does shift things. If Silas Stone was given the "final lines" of Justice League, that suggests his character (and by extension Cyborg) were much more important to the emotional heart of the original cut.
In essence, having Silas' video play over the final montage makes Cyborg the point of view character of the movie. Cyborg starts off Justice League cut off from society and very distant. Yet the final monologue is all about hope and fighting the darkness. It would have driven home Cyborg's arc from outcast to hero in a much more obvious way. At the very least, Silas Stone having that monologue proves Snyder wanted Cyborg to be a much more integral or poignant character in Justice League.
