Zack Snyder Reveals Original Plans For DC’s Atom After Justice League

Ryan Choi in Justice League

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The DC Extended Universe is a unique place, as there have been countless projects announced over the years. Zack Snyder's Justice League finally arrived a month ago, almost immediately leading to calls for WB to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse. The titular filmmaker had a ton of ideas about future sequels and spinoffs, which would add heroes like Martian Manhunter to the fray. And now Snyder explained his idea for an Atom movie, starring Zheng Kai's character Ryan Choi.

After being cut from the theatrical release, Ryan Choi had a number of scenes throughout the four-hour run of Zack Snyder's Justice League. His final scene teased his eventual fate as the hero Atom, but there's no indication as to whether or not we'll actually see this story come to fruition. But Zack Snyder's idea for his solo movie sound awesome, as he recently explained:

I had always had this idea that we would make a movie, the Ryan Choi movie, an Atom movie in China, with Chinese-English and Chinese language. I think that, frankly, I think Netflix is really good at this. We've just done it with the Army of the Dead prequel, Army of Thieves, where it's an English, and French, and German movie.

Well, color me intrigued. It looks like Zack Snyder wanted to take Ryan Choi aka Atom away from Gotham City, and put him in adventure in the East. It's certainly a cool concept, especially as the superhero genre becomes a more inclusive place. Of course, we'll just have to wait and see if the studio moves forward with the character, as well as actor Zheng Kai.

Zack Snyder's comments to Beyond the Trailer shows just how much the 300 filmmaker thought about the various characters that made up Justice League. While the streaming event was about one group of heroes, he was also planting narrative seeds for various follow-up projects. That includes Ryan Choi's future to become Atom, and eventually join the League himself.

The Snyder Cut is available exclusively on HBO Max. You can use this link to sign up for the streaming service.

Later in his same interview, Zack Snyder went on to explain why he was hoping that DC's Atom movie would be a major step forward in regards to inclusion within the superhero genre. As he explained,

We would make a movie set in China, really get the Chinese fans and be inclusive, and make it about a Chinese character. And not that this Chinese character is in the movie, but we're in his movie. That's how I wanted it.

Considering that Justice League was originally meant to arrive in theaters back in 2017, the filmmaker's interest in telling diverse stories is doubly exciting. He prominently featured a Black superhero years before Black Panther would make history in theaters. And it seems that if Snyder got his wish, we'd also be treated to an Atom movie deeply connected to Chinese culture.

Since Zack Snyder's Justice League was released on HBO Max, DC fans have been hoping that Warner Bros. might move forward some some of the narrative seeds the filmmaker was planting. While the studio has shut down rumors of a Justice League sequel, we'll have to wait and see if Atom gets a chance to shine in the massive franchise.

The next installment in the DCEU is The Suicide Squad on August 6th. In the meantime, check out our 2021 release list to plan your next movie experience.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.