Joss Whedon Changed Approximately 30% of Justice League Script

The switching of director hands between Zack Snyder to Joss Whedon for Justice League was always going to have a big impact for the end result, but now a source close to those in the know has made the picture that bit more clear. Forbes' Mark Hughes has been following these events closely from those that work on the set of the DC blockbuster and appearing on The Superhero News Show this week, he outlined how much of an influence the former Buffy the Vampire Slayer architect has had behind the scenes.

Whedon is said to have brought in two dozen pages of additional material, including and excluding certain characters that Snyder had earmarked before he departed due to personal reasons. While Hughes admits that this change is significant, it is not intended to be a major shift from what the inaugural filmmaker had planned.

Cut Here, Cut There, Cut Everywhere

As the discussion shifted from Ant-Man updates to Suicide Squad 2 news and everything involved in the superhero movie domain, Hughes explained the series of events that would see Whedon take the reigns. Coming onto the scene with his own sensibilities from his Marvel days, there were alterations that made up a third of what was written down to begin with.

"There are a lot of ways you can contribute to changing a script," he argued. "What I heard was (that Whedon did) roughly two dozen pages of additional new material and rewrites, and on top of that, there's some stuff that's been cut. Scenes have been cut, and characters have been cut out of the film. Things have been changed and things have been cut. So when you look at the totality of his involvement and his work and his impact on that script, yes, it's fair to say probably a third of the script total when you add (cuts, reshoots, and new scenes)."

Hughes would intimated that the villain Darkseid might not have been completely cut from the picture altogether, with the possibility for a cameo or post-credit scene an outside chance.

No Gloss Taken Off Snyder's Vision

For Hughes' standpoint, this is not a film divided into two thirds Zack Snyder and one third Joss Whedon. There is more complication and context in that respect, but he says that Whedon is well worthy of earning his writer's credit.

"The reason I am saying this is not to diminish the one third or the work that he did on it, or didn't do so much. My point is that he was brought in just as a screenwriter and then he's coming in to direct the film. Then you come in and edit. The huge amount of work Joss Whedon has done on this film deserves credit. People are saying it is some sort of insult on Snyder or whatever, it's not. Giving people credit for what they have done is important. It's right and fair and just that he gets that writing credit."

So where does the feature stand right now exactly?