To say Justice League was controversial is an understatement. Warner Bros. hoped the film would serve as a course-correction for the troubled DCEU, but instead the film was widely panned by both fans and critics alike. Even director Joss Whedon didn’t seem enamored of the movie’s big bad, Steppenwolf; he actually ’liked’ a tweet condemning the mo-capped villain.

Behind-the-scenes art has suggested Steppenwolf was redesigned at the last minute, perhaps explaining the poor quality of the CGI. It’s worth remembering that the trailers avoided giving a glimpse of Steppenwolf; he was first seen when Warner Bros. released a clip from the film less than two weeks before release. It was hardly a statement of confidence in Darkseid’s agent.

But it turns out the CGI has more issues than fans realized at first glance. One eagle-eyed viewer has spotted an amusing detail in the film.

This kind of mistake can happen with live actors, as their costumes move around during filming. But it can’t happen with a CGI creation - and Steppenwolf was entirely CGI. That means an animator decided it was a good idea to render Steppenwolf’s bare backside.

Animators have traditionally amused themselves by adding off-color jokes into individual frames. Two frames of The Rescuers featured a topless woman in a window; all the animators knew, but 20 years later Disney’s execs didn’t. They were left red-faced when it was spotted after re-release, and the House of Mouse recalled 3.4 million copies. During The Lion King, dust in the air forms the word “SFX” - or, many viewers insist, “SEX.” One newspaper headline in The Incredibles suggested a whole different reason supers were outlawed; “X-RAY VISION PEEPING TOM?”

All these amusing examples basically flow from a bored animator deciding to have fun on the job. If Steppenwolf is another example - rather than possibly the most surreal Easter egg in superhero history - then the animator has done a good job. That scene will have been passed on to lighting technicians to work over, so the fact it got through suggests more than one person were in on this.

Of course, the reality is that we live in a different age. Where previously it took decades to spot frames like this, now fans are poring over the films within weeks or even days of release. One thing’s for sure; if there’s one amusing clip like this, there’s a chance there’ll be others. DC fans will be poring over Justice League to see if they can spot the next joke.

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