Justice League director Zack Snyder has offered an explanation regarding a deleted scene from the movie that focuses on Superman. It’s no secret that the DCEU film was completely revamped following Snyder’s departure during post-production. The sweeping changes that were made to film by the studio and replacement director Joss Whedon were widely viewed in a negative light, which led to ever-increasing fan demand for the release of Snyder’s director’s cut.


Those demands hit a fever pitch once Justice League was made available for digital download earlier this month. The release promised bonus scenes that weren’t in the film’s theatrical cut, and while the two sequences included on home video made good on that promise, they weren’t quite enough to satiate fans’ desire for an outright Snyder cut.


As the calls for a director’s cut continue, the fanbase has vigorously poured over every frame of the film in search of clues and Easter eggs. One fan reached out to the director on Vero to ask about the first deleted scene that was released, wondering if the sequence was more than a simple Easter egg opportunity. The fan postulates that Superman’s decision to don his classic costume instead of the black suit is a direct callback to a scene from 2013’s Man of Steel, where Jonathan Kent speaks with his son about a decision he’ll have to make in the future, “whether to stand proud in front of the human race or not”. Surprisingly, Snyder replied to confirm that theory, and he even takes it a step further. Check out the screenshots of the fan’s interaction with Snyder (which he shared on his Twitter account) for yourself below.

Taking a little hiatus from my Twitter break to freak out a little https://twitter.com/nickalbright/status/967850051707031552/photo/1


— Smalls (@nickalbright) February 25, 2018

“I think of course it’s that (what you said) and that now in one sense he has been born twice once on Krypton once on Earth,” says Snyder, “and it is this reality that he now is starkly aware of as he moves through the ship.” In the director’s eyes, Superman’s rebirth is as much physical as it is spiritual. Where the Man of Steel formerly viewed himself as an alien and an outsider, he is now officially a child of Earth.


It’s great to see Snyder responding to fan questions and theories regarding Justice League. If you’ve got a theory of your own, you might want to head over to his Vero page to see if he’ll throw in his two cents!