Actor HOLT McCALLANY tussles with The Batman in the opening moments of the JUSTICE LEAGUE, but a lot of their brawl ended up on the cutting room floor including a mysterious ally that was lurking in the shadows!
Holt McCallany currently appearing in Netflix’s hit “MINDHUNTER” tussles with The Batman in the opening act of “JUSTICE LEAGUE”.
In the opening minutes of Justice League after the head-scratching moment featuring Superman sans-a-mustache, the audience is reintroduced to Gotham City’s Caped Crusader as Batman hunts the skyline of Gotham City. He comes across a poor soul, a burglar that thinks that perhaps its safe to stalk the rooftops of the fabled city, perhaps imagining that with the death of the Man of Steel, he’s likely to get away with the goods. Unfortunately for him, that’s just not the case and he comes to blows with the Dark Knight!
The actor playing that burglar goes uncredited in the final cast list, but is known famously as Holt McCallany whose work has made him synonymous with “tough guy” roles appearing in Fight Club, The Losers and currently appearing in the hit Netflix Original Series Mindhunter. Though he tussles for what appears like a hot minute with Ben Affleck’s Batman, the actor leaves an indelible impression when the hero inspires fear in him to summon one of the invading parademons, and heralding the dangers to come.
Though that scene sets up the chase for the scattered Mother Boxes that spell certain doom for the planet, McCallany revealed that there was much more going on that root top brawl than just a heist. In fact the actor suggested that much of what was shot for that opening scene ended up on the cutting room floor after Josh Whedon took over the reigns from original director Zack Snyder. In fact, another one of Batman’s rogues gallery of villains was also intended to be introduced in that moment which also included the enigmatic Cluemaster!
Cluemaster of course is best known as the father of Stephanie Brown, a vigilante ally of the Batman Family who has for a time even assumed the identity of Batgirl. Holt McCallany’s revelation gives more insight and ignites speculation of more of the world that Snyder was building with his original cut of the film. This of course adds more fuel to the fire that a “Director’s Cut” should be made available for the mass market, so that fans can get a deeper idea of the scope of Snyder’s vision for Justice League.
The film unfortunately did not entirely meet fan expectations, and in the wake of the success of Marvel Studios Black Panther and The Avengers: Infinity War it would seem that DC will have a lot of catching up to do to really capitalize on its film properties especially those that exist to inhabit a cinematic extended universe.
Justice League is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD download, as well as in 4K Ultra-HD formats.