Kevin Costner Was In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Here’s What You Missed
Kevin Costner pops up very quickly in Zack Snyder's version of Justice League, but you probably weren't paying close enough attention.
One of the biggest events in recent comic-book movie history was the terrible critical reception of Justice League and the #releasetheSyndercut fallout that happened in the wake of it. As you may or may not know, Synder felt like his full vision for the movie never reached the screen, which led to tons of fan petitions and pressure mounting to get his version of the film released. The studios eventually relented, allowing Synder to release the whopping 4-hour cut to fans and audiences. With such a lengthy runtime and so many added scenes, you’d be forgiven if you missed a few of the cameos. Namely Kevin Costner’s reappearance as Jonathan Kent.
If you haven’t seen Man of Steel or any of Kevin Costner’s other brief cameos in the DC films, you may not know that he played Superman’s adoptive Earth father in the film. Unfortunately, he would meet his untimely demise early on in the movie. When he was still raising Clark Kent alongside his wife and Supes’ adoptive mother Martha, he was killed by a tornado. He had been encouraging Superman to hide his powers from the world and, though he could have saved Jonathan, he held back at his father’s behest. He has appeared briefly in visions and flashbacks since that film, but his cameo in the four-hour version of Justice League is certainly a blink-and-you-miss-it affair.
Zack Synder’s Justice League follows the events of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, where Superman gave his life to take down the threat known as Doomsday. In Justice League, he is eventually revived to help take on the new threat of Steppenwolf and his Parademons. However, when Supes is first resurrected, he’s confused and doesn’t quite know who he is. To help him remember, he heads to a downed Kryptonian ship where he hears the voice of both his Kryptonian father Jor-El and Kevin Costner’s Jonathan Kent. Jor-El reminds him why he came to Earth and that it’s time for him to decide on his legacy while Jon Kent tells him that he should show the world who he is. That’s pretty much all you get from Kevin Costner in the entire four-hour runtime, so it’s definitely a very brief cameo.
As small as the role is, Kevin Costner was still committed to the secrecy leading up to the film. When a CinemaBlend interviewer tried to get some info out of him before the release, Costner replied “I don’t know. You don’t want to be kissin’ and tellin’ in life. You’re pokin’ me a little bit. I’m not… I can’t tell you.” So credit where credit is due. He certainly didn’t spoil anything about the movie. Currently, it’s unclear if Henry Cavill will be stepping back into the blue tights and cape of Superman, so Zack Synder’s Justice League might be the last time we see or hear from Costner’s character. Even so, the DC cinematic universe marches on with upcoming films for Aquaman, the Flash, Black Adam, Shazam, and more on the docket. And though there’s no apparent connection to the current DC universe, you can see the latest Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson if you’re needing your DC fix.
