Zack Snyder’s Justice League, otherwise known as the Snyder Cut of the theatrical release of Justice League is finally here, and it’s big! As expected, the four-hour long film is packed with hidden details and geeky Easter eggs, some of which are listed below. If you haven't seen the movie yet, go watch it on HBO Max (or a VOD service in your country) and then come back as, there are going to be major SPOILERS ahead!

Atom

Chinese actor Zheng Kai plays Ryan Choi, Silas Stone's second in command in scenes that were cut from the theatrical release but restored for the Snyder Cut.

Ryan, who was created by writer Gail Simone, began his career as the protégé of the previous Atom, Ray Palmer, and took over Palmer's post at Ivy University when the elder professor went missing. That's how Choi found Palmer's old bio-belt, which is powered by a fragment of a white dwarf star. From there, it wasn't long before Choi began investigating all the weirdness that surrounds Ivy Town and its residents. Despite his powers(shrink any object to any degree at will), Ryan Choi remains an academic at heart, and for all their absurdity, his best adventures still have their roots in real-world science. So when S.T.A.R. Labs dubs Choi the head of nanotechnology at the end of Zack Snyder's Justice League, it's not just a promotion. It's a premonition of things to come.

While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Zack Snyder discussed how Justice League’s ending would have propelled this particular hero to the forefront of the DCEU. When asked if Kai’s exciting role would have led somewhere, Snyder reveals he had planned a bright future for the fan-favourite hero: "Yeah. I had been pitching Warners to do an Atom movie with him in China, like a Chinese-cast superhero movie. That was my goal."

Green Lantern Corps

There are two Green Lanterns in the movie - one of them shows up in the flashback scene, which shows Apokalips' first invasion of Earth - Yalan Gur, one of Sector 2814's previous protectors. Gur was once one of the most skilled Lanterns in the entire Green Lantern Corps, and became more formidable once the Guardians of the Universe, removed his Power Ring's weakness against the colour yellow.

When Cyborg has his vision of the Knightmare timeline, he sees the deaths of Wonder Woman and Aquaman at the hands of Darkseid. However, another Green Lantern - Kilowog's dead body is seen on the ground, in the decimated remains of the Hall of Justice. It's unclear when Kilowog died as well as at what point he came to Earth.

The ending of the movie, shows Harry Lennix appear as the alien observer known as Martian Manhunter, who descends to meet with Bruce Wayne. Snyder confirmed in an interview with Vanity Fair that, they had shot a version of this scene with Green Lantern, but the studio didn’t want him to do Green Lantern, as they have plans and they want to make their own announcement regarding the same. So he made a deal with them, and they let him complete his version of the movie with Martian Manhunter as the compromise instead.

Which Green Lantern did Snyder want to use? - John Stewart the first African-American superhero to appear in DC Comics. Snyder expressed regret that the studio prevented him from bringing Stewart to the screen for the first time.

This headline reads that a security firm is looking for a new architect. This seems pretty random so it could be a reference to the Green Lantern John Stewart who was originally an architect in the comics.

Gorilla Sign Language

During his initial meeting with Bruce Wayne, the Flash explains that he knows “gorilla sign language,” which is a fun little joke and also a potential reference to Gorilla Grodd, a super-intelligent ape who is one of the Flash’s most infamous villains.

Gard’ner Fox

In 1940, when comics books' Golden Age was in full swing, Gardner Fox and his editor, Sheldon Mayer, had an idea to put DC's most popular heroes together and form their own team. That’s how the Justice Society of America debuted in the pages of All-Star Comics #3, with a roster featuring the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, the Sandman, Hour-Man, the Spectre, and the Atom. In the late '50s, during the Silver Age of comics, Gardner revitalize the Justice Society, with a new name: the Justice League putting Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, and Martian Manhunter on the same team for the first time. The Justice League made its debut in The Brave and the Bold #28.

Zack Snyder's Justice League pays tribute to the man in Barry Allen's introduction sequence by way of the speeding truck that threatens downtown Central City. An advertisement for the Gard'ner Fox produce company painted on the vehicle's side is a homage to writer Gardner Fox, the co-creator of both the original Flash and the Justice League, among others.

The young woman who Barry saves from almost certain death is none other than Iris West, his eventual love interest and wife.

Hot dogs

Hot dogs are among the things hovering in mid-air when Barry tries to save Iris, is a reference to the character’s first appearance, when one of Barry’s first super speed acts was to catch a spilled tray of food in a diner in mid-air before the waitress knew what had happened.

The Spectre

Crispus Allen, the officer who briefs Commissioner Gordon on the Parademon sightings around the city made his comic book debut in Detective Comics #742, and went on to become one of the primary leads of Gotham Central. Later, Crispus Allen was killed at the hands of a corrupt cop named Jim Corrigan.

That wasn't the end for Allen, though. While Allen's body was in the morgue, Spectre - the embodiment of God’s vengeance, a supernatural entity who metes out divine justice, with an ironic twist, was forced to accept Allen as his new host. Later, the magic users of Earth assembled to call forth the Spectre and usher in the new age of magic. Allen appears in a ghostly version of his own form before making his first official transformation into the Spectre. The Spectre needs a human host to keep him grounded — and, for better or worse, noble-minded Crispus was the perfect man for the job.

Drachma(The Coins)

In Cyborg’s vision of a dark future, we see that Wonder Woman, having died, has two coins over her eyes on a funeral pyre. In Greek mythology, coins on the eyes were a ceremonial offering so that the dead would have money to pay Charon, Hades’ ferryman, for passage across the River Styx into the afterlife.

It is not clear as of now, how she dies but, the Amazons and Queen Hippolyta are present and are surrounded by Parademons and ships from Apokolips, implying that Darkseid defeated Themyscira while the warriors grieved the loss of Hippolyta's daughter. Wonder Woman is a Goddess herself so, it's almost a safe to say that Darkseid or Superman was the one to kill her.

Statue of Themis

Before stopping the terrorist attack on the bank, Wonder Woman briefly rests on a statue of Themis – her ancestor, a Titan from Greek mythology who represents order and justice. Themis wasn't a goddess in the same sense as Hera, Athena, or other Greek goddesses. Instead, Themis was one of the titans, the forebears of the Greek gods. But, like other benevolent titans such as Prometheus, Themis was given honorary god status and was worshipped.

Interestingly, the statue in Justice League doesn't wear the blindfold that is commonly associated with modern depictions of Lady Justice – a way of distinguishing the statue as Themis.

Arrow of Artemis

Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting, but there’s another reason why it’s fitting that it’s her arrow that will alert Diana to the coming threat: In Roman mythology, Artemis’s name is Diana.

Object 6-1982

The Mother Box that created Cyborg is labelled “Object 6-1982”, which is a direct reference to Cyborg's original origin story. In June 1982, DC published the first issue of Tales of the New Teen Titans, a four-issue miniseries that delved into the history of DC's New Teen Titans team. Naturally, this first issue was all about Cyborg, and his story follows the same major beats as the adaptation seen in Zack Snyder's Justice League, although there are a few major differences: the accident that cripples Victor is caused by an extra-dimensional entity, not a car crash, his super-intellect is the result of experiments his parents conducted before his accident, and there isn't a Mother Box to be found.

This Easter egg first appeared at the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Linda J. Reed

One of the first things Cyborg does with his mastery over technology is help out a struggling mother named Linda J. Reed by putting $100,000 in her bank account There’s an old Golden Age comics character named Linda Reed - a short-lived Green Arrow character who (along with her twin sister Ramona) went by the uninspiring name of “Girl Archer”. There doesn’t really seem to be a connection here though.

Se7en

Victor Stone’s jersey number was seven. The number seven is associated with the Justice League, and the movie sees a recurrence of the number seven as many iconic versions of the team have had seven members and the original tagline of the movie was to "unite the seven". Even Aquaman has to unite the seven seas. It is also a significant number in the bible - god created the world in seven days making it a number of completion.

Kafka’s Metamorphosis

As Cyborg sulks in his house, he stands next to a poster of The Metamorphosis. It is a story about the author turning into a cockroach. An appropriate bit of décor since Victor thinks he is basically been transformed into a monster.

ACE Chemicals

When Bruce, Barry, and Diana stare at the bat-signal from an airport tarmac, we can catch a glimpse of the Ace Chemicals plant in the background. That's where the Joker fell into a vat that transformed him into the Clown Prince of Crime, and where he took his therapist, Dr. Harleen Quinzel, to make her into Harley Quinn.

It also exploded in the movie Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).

The Yellow Butterfly

After his resurrection, Clark spends time in the Kent farm playing with a yellow butterfly. In Japanese culture a Yellow Butterfly symbolises the cycle of life. In Native American and many other cultures, they symbolise new life and hope.

Jimmy-Jerry

Zack Snyder killed off the DCEU's version of Jimmy Olsen (Daily Planet's star photographer) in the opening scenes of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

In Zack Snyder's Justice League - Jerry, the cop who Lois Lane befriends during her daily vigil at Metropolis' ruined Superman monument is played by actor Marc McClure, who portrayed Jimmy Olsen in all of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, as well as in its spinoff, Supergirl.

The character played by Marc is named Jerry, as a tribute to Jerry Siegel, one of the co-creators of Superman.

McClure also had a cameo in the theatrical cut of Justice League, but it was a slightly different one - a police officer at Iron Heights penitentiary, where Barry Allen goes to visit his incarcerated father. The Movie director Richard Donner, had called McClure back to the studio during re-shoots after his first cameo was cut, ensuring that the one-time Jimmy Olsen still appeared on the big screen.

The League of…. Halo?

In Justice League's theatrical cut, a brief scene near the end of the movie unites a newly freed Lex Luthor with Deathstroke, played by Jesse Eisenberg and Joe Manganiello respectively. Lex tries to recruit Deathstroke by offering him a valuable piece of information - mainly, Batman's secret identity — and the whole thing ends on an ominous note, with the two villains agreeing to join forces.

There's a little more to this scene, though. Deathstroke's sword is adorned with a very specific reference to the video game Halo! Spotted by a fan who got an in-person look at Deathstroke's suit at a special exhibition and confirmed by an artist at game developer Bungie, Deathstroke's signature weapon sports a logo from Microsoft's seminal first-person shooter game.

Is it a reference to the League of Shadows? - NO. This bizarre little reference is the result of a Google search gone wrong. Allegedly, an artist at Warner Bros. was trying to find an icon related to the League of Assassins, run by Ra's al Ghul. Searching for "Ra's al Ghul symbol", however, brings up a fan-modified Halo sigil. It seems the designers on the movie planned to signify Slade Wilson's emergence as mercenary Deathstroke and link him to this hidden organization. Several sources and Joe Manganiello himself later confirmed the fan's hunch. The actor wrote that "another Justice League easter egg was found" on social media.

The symbol never appears in the DC books but, in the Halo video game series. Bungie Studios designer Christopher Barret, who originally came up with the mark, discovered the case and confirmed that this “easter egg” has little to do with Ra's al Ghul. Barret mentioned he made this emblem twenty years ago and still has the original illustrator file.

Presumably, the confusion occurred because the symbol was added to the fan Comic Crossroads encyclopedia page long ago. The author of the Batman and Daredevil fan crossover used it as the logo for his own version of the League of Shadows. This small symbol has never appeared in official comics about Deathstroke or Ra's al Ghul.

It is interesting enough that now this icon from Halo with the same colouring appears first in the Google search for "Ra's al Ghul symbol”.

Zack Snyder’s Cameo

Zack Snyder himself appears in Zack Snyder's Justice League. About 16 minutes into the movie, when Lois Lane leaves a coffee shop and gets her umbrella open before going out into the rain. We can see Snyder in the background sitting at one of the seats by the front window. Snyder revealed his cameo before on Vero, but it didn't make it into the theatrical cut.

It's called Fred and Ginger Coffee and is a real coffee shop in Kings Langley. Zack would go there to sit and storyboard the film. Snyder wanted to give a little tribute to one of his favourite spots while making the movie.

The Cortlandt Sinks

Aquaman rescues a sailor from a sinking boat, named The Cortlandt - a reference to the Cortlandt housing project from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. Snyder is a devoted follower of Ayn Rand, creator of the philosophical system known as Objectivism.

An adaptation of Rand's The Fountainhead is one of Snyder's dream projects, and has been in and out of pre-production.

Cortlandt is the name of an ambitious construction project in The Fountainhead designed by the book's hero, an architect named Howard Roark. He is a genius who refuses to compromise or submit to popular ideas, and who champions individualism among all else. Sound familiar? Not only is the story clearly near and dear to Snyder's heart, but the Cortlandt Easter egg feels strangely visionary given the Snyder Cut's long, convoluted history. It's only appropriate that it survived into the final product.

A Friendly Neighbourhood Crossover

When Superman comes back from the dead and briefly fights with the League at Heroes Park, at one point Flash ends up knocked into a memorial wall of names, there to commemorate those who died in General Zod's attack on Metropolis in Man of Steel. In the theatrical cut of Justice League, we didn't get to see any of those names – but in the Snyder Cut, Ben Parker is clearly inscribed on the memorial. The name can be seen at around 2 hours and 37 minutes in to the movie.

Ben Parker, better known as Uncle Ben, is Spider-Man's uncle. It's his death that's a huge factor into turning Peter Parker in to the hero we know and love, as seen with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's incarnations of the characters. In the MCU, though, Uncle Ben has been absent, and Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark was the main mentor to Tom Holland's Spidey.

Whether the Ben Parker reference is on purpose or not, is still not clear.

The Dark Knight Returns

When we first see Bruce Wayne searching for Arthur Curry, he’s riding a jet black horse, which is very similar to the steed he rode in some famous pages of Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley’s classic and influential The Dark Knight Returns, a work which has considerable influence on how Batman was portrayed in this and in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

There’s another shot of the Bat-tank or otherwise known as the Warmachine which is a direct reference to a panel from Dark Knight Returns.

Bruce Kent

In the movie, when Lois grabs her press pass from her bedside table drawer, a pregnancy test can be seen inside. Snyder in an interview explained that Lois is pregnant at the end of the movie and, the brand name Force Majeure translates to "unforeseeable circumstances" in French.

Snyder also revealed that it would be Lois' death, which Batman fails to prevent, that leads to Superman succumbing to the Anti-Life Equation in the unmade sequels. After this is eventually undone via time travel shenanigans, Superman and Lois' son Bruce Kent would go on to become the new Batman – after Bruce Wayne sacrifices himself to prevent Lois' death, preventing the Knightmare future from coming to pass.

“Twenty years later, on the anniversary of [Batman’s] death, they take young Bruce Kent down to the Batcave and they say, ‘Your Uncle Bruce would’ve been proud if you did this”

Hallelujah

In March of 2017, while the original theatrical release of Justice League was in post-production, Zack Snyder's 20-year-old daughter Autumn died by suicide which prompted Snyder to step away.

After four years, Snyder finally got the opportunity to show the world Justice League as he originally envisioned it, as well as work through some of the trauma surrounding its original production. Naturally, the entire movie is dedicated to Autumn, which is what makes this particular Easter egg so poignant. As Bruce Wayne and Barry Allen drive toward the Central City airport, the camera lingers on a billboard for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, an organization dedicated to "saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide."

As the end credits roll Allison Crowe’s cover of “Hallelujah,” originally sung by Leonard Cohen, plays. Snyder has used the song before, playing the original in Watchmen, but he’s returning to it again for the Snyder Cut because the song is important and meaningful to him and his daughter Autumn.

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