It was long suspected. Now it has been confirmed. Harry Lennix will officially appear as Martian Manhunter in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. What started out as an Internet meme, then became an online campaign, has now blown up into one of the most epic TV miniseries ever created. The Snyder Cut will hit HBO Max later this year as a four-part TV show that contains almost 80% never-before-seen footage not included in Joss Whedon’s theatrical release. And that includes scenes with Martian Manhunter.
In a new interview with Collider, Harry Lennix confirmed the news himself that his character in the DCEU has actually been in disguise this whole times, and was always secretly DC Comics favorite J’onn J’onzz. This news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. It has been long suspected and rumored that Harry Lennix would transform into Martian Manhunter, with Zack Snyder dropping plenty of hints over the past handful of years, along with a series of storyboards that pretty much gave it away.
A Snyder Cut poster contest also assured the winner that they’d be treated to a reshoot set visit that included the presence of J’onn J’onzz aka The Martian Manhunter, though little has been said about the winner’s time on set. It appears that Harry Lennix did return for the reshoots. And it sounds like DC fans will see his green transformation at some point during the four hour HBO Max marathon that is the limited DC series.
According to this new report, Harry Lennix managed to reshoot all of the needed scenes that bring Martina Manhunter into the fold. The alien was completely absent from Joss Whedon’s cut of the movie. In the new interview, Lennix claims that he had no idea he was playing Martina Manhunter, and was not made aware of his character’s secret identity as J’onn J’onzz when he shot his scenes as General Swanwick in Man of Steel.
Harry Lennix believed that Man of Steel was his first and final film in what was being called the DCEU at that time. When he returned for his extended cameo in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder continued to keep the actor clueless as to his character’s true identity. It wasn’t until he signed on for Justice League that he learned he was playing the iconic Martian Manhunter. He says this to Collider.
“I never saw the script. I didn’t get a chance to read the script, because… they were still being developed, and they keep all of that under lock and key.”
Harry Lennix was shooting The Blacklist simultaneously with Justice League, and had not finished his Martian Manhunter scenes before Joss Whedon took over the whole operation, with the new team ditching the J’onn J’onzz sequence in the DC Comics adventure.
Martian Manhunter is a telepathic shapeshifting alien created in the 1950s by writer Joseph Samachson and artist Joe Certa. The character was previously brought to life on Smallville played by Phil Morris, and later by David Harewood in The CW’s ArrowVerse, first being introduced on Supergirl. This will be the first time Martian Manhunter has made his appearance in a big screen movie. Though technically now it is being cut into a TV show. About becoming Martin Manhunter in Zack Snyder’s completed vision for Justice League, Harry Lennix said this.
“It’s going to be great to be up there with Batman and Superman and my pals. Yeah, I’m once again like a kid at a candy store.”
Zack Snyder hasn’t yet revealed an official image of Harry Lennix fully transformed as Martian Manhunter. You can check out the actor’s full interview over at Collider.