Note: Spoilers for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice follow.
Batman v Superman weighs in at a healthy two-and-a-half hours, managing in that time to cover a good deal of material (and in a pretty enjoyable fashion, we might add). We’re reunited with an existentially wrought Clark Kent. We’re introduced to a trauma-torn, paranoid Bruce Wayne. We spend time on assignments with jet-setting reporter Lois Lane. We’re thrust into the fragmented psyche of a megalomaniacal Lex Luthor. There’s ample time devoted to the Daily Planet offices, to Wayne Manor, to LexCorp Industries, and to the freakin’ U.S. Senate. And, as you may have heard, a few other familiar faces from the DC canon make their way into the narrative. So, really, what’s left for the extended cut?
(Or, as Zack Snyder prefers to call it, the “ultimate cut.”)
In a conversation with Steve Weintraub from Collider, Snyder offers a few hints as to what might fill out the additional 30 minutes that he’s tacked onto the R-rated Blu-ray edition of Batman v Superman. “There was some sort of interstitial stuff that surrounds the [Superman/Batman] story, that kind of finishes some of the ideas that we trimmed back, and I think that’s what you get,” Snyder says.
Vague though this may be, fans who’ve seen the movie can begin to contemplate what the director may be alluding to. A good deal of the material that strays from the focus of Clark and Bruce involves Lois Lane in pursuit of answers about the mysterious kryptonite crystal that crash landed upon Earth following the invasion of the World Engine circa Man of Steel.
Further, Lois is actually center stage in a scene that Snyder mentions explicitly in the interview: “The opening of the movie, the North Africa sequence is really much different.”
This very investigation intertwines with the storyline of Lex Luthor, who himself is in hot pursuit of a weapon capable of taking down the godly Kal-El. While Lois’ key stage partner is U.S. Secretary Calvin Swanwick, played by Harry Lennix, Luthor spends a good share of his story in engaged in a mind game with Holly Hunter’s Senator Finch. (If you ask me, more time offered to Hunter would be worth the price of a Blu-ray.)
To reiterate the above, however, there is plenty more going on in Batman v Superman that Snyder could be referring to. Most interestingly, perhaps, is the notion of more time devoted to Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, or even the ring of other DC heroes who show up ever so briefly. It’s not especially likely that we’ll get warmer welcomes to the Flash or Aquaman on the Batman v Superman Blu-ray, but another scene or two with the at-large Princess Diana isn’t entirely out of the question.
Snyder rounds out the chat by sharing a few more details of what differentiates the ultimate cut from its theatrical counterpart. “There’s a little bit of action, there’s a little bit of violence that we trimmed out for the MPAA that we put back,” he says. “The Batman warehouse rescue, there’s a couple shots of Doomsday that were too intense. Then there’s a little bit longer ending…sequence.”
All of that is pretty cut and dry, but curiosity remains regarding the other “interstitial” stuff that’ll find grander display on home video. What do you hope to see more of on the Blu-ray? Let us know!
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HT: Collider
IMAGE: Warner Bros.
