Joss Whedon’s reshoots of Justice League have actually added a plot hole into the history of the DC Extended Universe, by creating a time paradox within Cyborg’s origin story. It’s still difficult to know just how much of Justice League was reworked by Whedon after he took over from Zack Snyder; certainly they included almost all of Superman’s scenes, the tone and lighting was changed dramatically, and a lot of the dialogue was switched up.

The reshoots ultimately led to a finished product that somehow feels incomplete, with the cinematic vision and style of two filmmakers mashed together with little care for continuity. Discussing these reshoots, we compared the final theatrical cut to “a Frankenstein’s monster of a film, with Whedon taking Snyder’s body parts and trying to craft something new.”

But here’s the thing about a shared cinematic universe; every film exists in the same world as the movies preceding it. As a result, although it wasn’t noticed at the time, we’ve spotted a single line of dialogue that creates a plot hole in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Cyborg’s Origin Story

The problem is with Cyborg’s origin story. There’s a scene set in the Batcave, in which Cyborg discusses the Mother Box - the alien artifact that had saved his life. Here’s what he says:

It’s a simple piece of exposition, and - at first glance - it dovetails perfectly with the established history of the Mother Box. The home release of Wonder Woman included an “epilogue” scene, given the title “Etta’s Mission.” Set in the aftermath of the end of the First World War, this saw Lucy Davis’s Etta Candy recruit Diana’s old allies on a mission. It seems that, after the Battle of Liege, the Allies had discovered something “very old and very powerful.” The British wanted Candy and her team to recover the artifact, and take it to the Americans. And the final scenes established that this was the Mother Box. This fits perfectly with Cyborg’s dialogue.

“My father called it the change engine. It was found by the British during World War I. They studied it… but they couldn’t even date it. It’s so old. It was shelved, until the night Superman died. Then she lit up like Christmas. They brought it to STAR Labs… where my father recognized it… as a perpetual energy matrix.”

The problem comes with Batman V Superman. That film included cameo scenes teasing future members of the Justice League, including Cyborg. Diana watched footage of the moment Cyborg’s body was transformed by the Mother Box - and, crucially, this was before Superman had died. And yet, in Justice League, Cyborg says that the Mother Box only “lit up like Christmas” on “the night Superman died.” It was only then that the Mother Box was given to STAR Labs, and that Cyborg’s father used it to transform the broken body of his son. The change, of course, was there for a reason; it made Superman’s death the inciting incident for the entire film. Unfortunately, however reasonable a change this may have been, it directly contradicts Batman V Superman. The two accounts are irreconcilable.

Zack Snyder may be a controversial director, but he has a keen eye for continuity. Over on Vero, his favorite social media account, Snyder has been dazzling fans by revealing the detailed imagery and continuity in his films. There’s simply no way this continuity error was a part of Snyder’s cut; this one’s on Whedon.

More: Flashpoint Shouldn’t Reboot The DCEU

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