There Are New Characters in 'Zack Snyder's Justice League' — Who Is Ryan Choi? (SPOILERS)
Mar. 18 2021, Updated 11:51 p.m. ET
Spoiler Alert: This article contains some mild spoilers for Zack Snyder's Justice League.
The newest DC film Zack Snyder's Justice League — referred to as the "Snyder Cut" — made its debut on March 18. The movie is the director's cut of the 2017 film Justice League, the fifth film in the DC Extended Universe. As the theatrical release from 2017, Zack Snyder's Justice League is a follow-up to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
It tells the story of the creation of the Justice League — Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) — as they join forces to protect Earth from the danger of Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and his army of Parademons after Superman's death. One of the major changes between the 2017 theatrical cut and Zack Snyder’s Justice League is Cyborg.
Cyborg is the robotic superhero played by Ray Fisher. The first film gave him very little attention, and in Snyder’s cut, he gets a backstory. In the four-hour movie, there are Cyborg-related stories, which include some new scenes that involve his father, Silas Stone (Joe Morton). Silas is studying the Kryptonian ship at the company he works at, Star Labs. It's in these scenes, viewers will meet Ryan Choi, a major DC Comics superhero.
Ryan Zheng portrays superhero Ryan Choi in 'Justice League.'
Actor and producer Ryan Zheng, also known as Zheng Kai, is best known for the films The Great Wall and Shadow. Ryan portrayed the superhero Ryan Choi in the theatrical version of Justice League, but his scenes were cut. However, those scenes have been restored in Zack Snyder's Justice League. In most of the scenes, he will serve as a foil character to Cyborg’s distant scientist father, Silas.
In the theatrical cut, Silas makes it out of the film alive, but in the Snyder Cut, he’s killed by superheated lasers. Silas’s death makes way for Ryan Choi to step in and become director of nanotechnology at Star Labs. This is a huge deal because Ryan Choi is a DC Comics superhero and is the fourth character to take the name Atom.
Other extra characters that didn't make it in the 2017 version are in Snyder's cut.
There are plenty of characters in Zack Snyder's Justice League that did not make it to the big screen in 2017. Notably, Willem Dafoe's Vulko, in addition to Kiersey Clemons' Iris West, join the cast. There's also Jared Leto's Joker and Harry Lennix's General Swanwick, better known as Martian Manhunter. Martian Manhunter appears twice in Snyder's cut.
Viewers see him once as Martha Kent, after talking with Lois Lane, and then again at the end of the movie when he tells Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) that he's on Earth to help out, which teases a sequel. Will there be another sequel? That's hard to say. But there hasn't been any indication that Zack would return to continue telling stories with his Justice League.
You can watch Zack Snyder's Justice League on the streaming service HBO Max now.
