Justice League Theory: Snyder’s Cyborg Is Influenced By Doctor Manhattan

Cyborg’s role in Zack Snyder’s Justice League could carry a strong Doctor Manhattan influence. The Snyder Cut is now just weeks away from landing on HBO Max, and with two trailers out for the world to see, the true essence of what the film is finally coming to mainstream attention. Far from being a typical director’s cut a la the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the Justice League Snyder Cut is almost completely distinct movie.

Few things demonstrate that more clearly than the much greater role Ray Fisher’s Cyborg will have in the movie. After his brief cameo in Batman v Superman, Victor Stone was intended to take on a very central role in the story of Justice League, only for the film’s last-minute reshaping ahead of its theatrical release to radically trim his role down. Now that Cyborg will be seen as he was meant to be in the Snyder Cut, something starting to stand out is the similarity between his story and that of Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen.

Both of them being men whose bodies and entire lives were dramatically altered by laboratory experiments, the arc that Victor appears to go through in the Snyder Cut also looks like it carries a significant influence from Jon Osterman’s in Watchmen, the two of them adapting to their news powers, gradually growing detachment from humanity, and eventually rediscovering it. With Snyder directing both movies, it’s not surprising that he and writer Chris Terrio might recognize some commonality between Victor and Jon, and endeavored to take Cyborg on a similar story of loss and discovery. Here’s how Cyborg’s story in the Snyder Cut might have been influenced by Doctor Manhattan’s in Watchmen.

Doctor Manhattan Is Zack Snyder’s Favorite Superhero

One reason that Snyder might feel compelled to present Cyborg in a similar manner to Doctor Manhattan is that the latter is Snyder’s favorite superhero. He revealed as much during the Snyder Cut panel for DC FanDome, citing Manhattan’s powers functioning at a quantum level, and “time, space, reality, all those things are at his fingertips“. While this is about as perfect a description of Manhattan as one could make, it also highlights Snyder’s broader perspective on superheroes in his DCEU films.

Man of Steel set up its world as one of gods co-existing alongside humans, with Batman v Superman presenting the inverse perspective on Bruce Wayne’s end as one of mankind’s uneasy response to such an unexpected presence. A logical extension of both films is for the Snyder Cut to take this a step further in showing humans gaining the kind of power that was revealed to the world so suddenly. This is where Cyborg’s role in the movie starts to come into play.

Cyborg Is The Heart Of Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Though every character in Justice League was reshaped by the film’s revamping in some way, with a sizeable number of characters even being taken out entirely, Cyborg was by far the most shortchanged hero. With his origin briefly shown in Batman v Superman through Lex Luthor’s metahuman files, the theatrical cut of Justice League didn’t position Victor Stone as much beyond the League’s tech saavy member, and really only gave a very general overview of his backstory and the breadth of his powers. This stands at odds with Snyder’s emphasis on Cyborg, and Fisher himself, as “the heart of my movie“, and this goes a lot deeper than Victor simply being the member of the League that audiences were meant to most heavily rally behind.

Justice League was meant to be a complete origin story for Victor Stone as Cyborg, depicting him gradually adapting to his powers, accepting the new body he finds himself in, and being instrumental in stopping the unity by directly interfacing with the three Mother Boxes (and also being tempted with a Faustian bargain from Darkseid when he does). All of this will be seen as it was originally intended when the Snyder Cut is released, and it’s also where Victor’s similarity to Doctor Manhattan starts to become more clear.

Cyborg Has A Similar Origin To Doctor Manhattan

Victor Stone’s origin as Cyborg has a mirror in that of Jon Osterman’s in Watchmen. Both Victor and Osterman gained their abilities through accidents that fundamentally transformed their bodies into something unrecognizable. On top of that, Cyborg is set to have a 15-minute scene with almost no dialogue showing his backstory, which sounds reminiscent of Snyder’s origin scene for Doctor Manhattan.

More than that, both of them also perceive the world through very different eyes as a result, while their respective accidents leave each distant from the people around them. Osterman’s accident arguably certainly gives him a more extreme transformation, as he grows increasingly indifferent to the world and the humans occupying it, eventually coming to see the very concept of life itself as “a highly overrated phenomenon“, though his dormant humanity is eventually re-awakened by Silk Spectre II.

With the information on hand about the Snyder Cut, Cyborg’s arc looks remarkably similar, being one of Victor’s transformation leaving him both overwhelmed by his new powers, and disconnected from humanity, with Victor managing to regain it through his relationship with the Justice League, and his friendship with Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen. In addition to the essence of their stories reflecting each other, Victor also shares another, major trait with Doctor Manhattan.

Some Of Cyborg’s Powers Are Similar To Doctor Manhattan’s

Manhattan’s quantum abilities more or less allow him to freely move through and even manipulate elements of reality itself. In addition to perceiving space and time down to atomic levels, Manhattan’s powers also enable him to destroy, disassemble, and reassemble even the smallest components of physical matter. Victor’s powers don’t operate in the same material way as Manhattan’s, but they’re of a surprising similar caliber.

As a result of his transformation, Victor now possesses an unrivaled capacity to control and interface with technology, an ability parallel to Manhattan’s power of matter manipulation. More importantly, the Mother Box has bestowed Victor with an almost infinite knowledge of the universe, giving him cerebral abilities of a comparable level to those of Doctor Manhattan. It also turns out Cyborg functioning at such an immense power level that comparisons to Doctor Manhattan could be entirely reasonable was also only the beginning of what Snyder had planned for him.

Zack Snyder Was Making Cyborg One Of The DCEU’s Most Powerful Characters

The comparison between Cyborg and Doctor Manhattan looks even stronger when the full scope of Snyder’s plans for Victor Stone are brought into the conversation. Fisher has stated that Cyborg would likely have become “one of, if not, the most powerful metahuman in the entire canon” had Snyder’s intended story plan been fulfilled. Snyder himself would later add on to this during his livestream commentary for Batman v Superman, describing him as being close to “impossible to kill” after being transformed by the Mother Box, and having “incredible other-worldly technology“. That’s certainly not far off from the virtual immortality Doctor Manhattan is bestowed after the accident that transformed Osterman.

As the heart of his version of Justice League, Snyder clearly wanted to take Victor’s story even further as part of his planned five-movie arc. Not only would Victor adapt to his new body and powers and reconnect with humanity once more, it can now be said that the the story would have taken Victor’s abilities to astronomical levels in the unfolding battle with Darkseid and Apokolips. It’s also fair to say Victor’s power level, aside from making him a key player in defeating Darkseid, would have made him a kindred spirit to Doctor Manhattan, as well.

Cyborg might have been the most cut down of Justice League‘s core team when the movie hit theaters, but the clock is now rapidly ticking down on the time when audiences will finally get to see his arc as the movie’s heart showcased the way it was meant to be. When Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally lands on March 18th, comparisons to the theatrical cut are inevitable. What many might not have seen coming is how closely Cyborg’s story could end up running parallels to Doctor Manhattan’s.

About The Author

Brad Curran
(720 Articles Published)

Growing up, Brad developed an innate love of movies and storytelling, and was instantly enamored with the world of adventure while following the exploits of Indiana Jones, Japanese kaiju, and superheroes. Today, Brad channels his thoughts on all manner of movies, from comic book films, sci-fi thrillers, comedies, and everything in between through his writings on Screen Rant. Brad also offers philosophical musings on martial arts and the filmographies of everyone from Jackie Chan to Donnie Yen on Kung Fu Kingdom, where he’s also had the privilege of interviewing many of the world’s great stunt professionals, and hearing plenty of gripping stories on injuries incurred in their line of work and the intricacies of designing the acts of death defiance he first thrilled to as a youngster. When he’s not writing, Brad enjoys going on a ride with the latest action hit or Netflix original, though he’s also known to just pop in “The Room” from time to time. Follow Brad on Twitter @BradCurran.

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