Justice League’s time in theaters came and went, but the talk surrounding a version of the movie that better reflects director Zack Snyder’s original vision has not died down. Snyder himself has done his fair share of promoting the Snyder Cut by sharing images and tidbits of information from his time on the production on social media, and his latest picture highlights cut character Ryan Choi, better known in the comics as The Atom.
Back in September 2018, nearly a year after Justice League was released, Zack Snyder confirmed that Ryan Choi was supposed to appear in Justice League after a promotional photo of the character next to Joe Morton’s Dr. Silas Stone was unearthed. Played by Star Wars: The Last Jedi actor Orion Lee, this version of Ryan worked alongside Silas at S.T.A.R. Labs, specifically, as Snyder shared in the above Vero picture, as the facility’s director of nanotechnology.
For those unfamiliar with Ryan Choi, he became The Atom in the comics after his mentor, Ray Palmer, went missing. Using Ray’s special technology, Ryan can shrink his body to varying degrees, as well as manipulate his weight and mass accordingly. Like Ray, Ryan is also a genius scientist, and in the pre-New 52 continuity, he took Ray’s place as a professor at Ivy University.
With Justice League focused on bringing Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg and eventually Superman together, one can reasonably assume that we wouldn’t have seen this Ryan Choi don the Atom suit in the movie. Nevertheless, just including him and highlighting his work in nanotechnology would have laid the groundwork for him to potentially appear as The Atom later down the DC Extended Universe road.
Alas, like so many things that were shot during Justice League’s principal photography, Ryan Choi was removed from the final cut, although there is still a reference to him. If you look closely, during the video footage showing Silas Stone trying to bring his son Victor back to life within S.T.A.R. Labs, Ryan’s name can be seen on a nearby screen. So while we may not have seen him in Justice League, at least we know he’s off conducting experiments somewhere else.
If you are looking to see Ryan Choi in live action, you’ll want to check out the Arrow-verse’s recent crossover event “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” Played by Supernatural actor Osric Chau, this version of Ryan ended up being one of the seven Paragons who, along with a Spectre-powered Oliver Queen, defeated the Anti-Monitor and recreated the DC multiverse. It remains to be seen if/when we’ll see Chau’s Ryan return in The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow or some other show.
As for the Snyder Cut, while the clamor for Warner Bros to release this version of Justice League is higher than ever (even Subway chimed in on the matter!), the studio has still given no indication that it plans to release it. But Zack Snyder is still doing his part to continually hype fans up about the Snyder Cut, like last week, when he shared an image of the young Darkseid leading his army into battle.
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