Swanwick Was Always Martian Manhunter’s Alter-ego, Says Snyder

Remember how in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, General Swanwick was going to be Martian Manhunter in disguise? Director Zack Snyder has now gone one step ahead and named Swanwick the alter-ego of Martian Manhunter. It basically means that Manhunter was pretending to be Swanwick through all his DC Extended Universe appearances.

As fans would know, Snyder has picked up the habit of revealing DCEU secrets, even the ones guarded fiercely, ever since the Snyder Cut was announced. Just recently, Snyder totally blew the cover off his plans to shoot Justice League 2 entirely during the Knightmare—a post-apocalypse where the Batman would lock horns with Superman.

However, since Warner Bros. has been more than clear in refusing a sequel to Justice League, many of Snyder’s plans may not take off. But that doesn’t seem to stop him from dreaming and even sharing them with his fans. The Snyder Cut is expected to have many cliffhangers seeded into it as part of his sequel plans, and Martian Manhunter’s alter-ego seems to be one of them.

But then, we could very well be underestimating Snyder’s fans who brought a production giant like Warner Bros. to its knees with their demands for a special Director’s Cut of its 2017 film Justice League. Harry Lennix, the actor playing General Warwick in Snyder Cut, is already calling on the franchise’s fans to demand a Martian Manhunter solo film.

Lennix’s question to Snyder the other day during the IGN Fan Fest 2021 only reinforces his excitement. Digging into the depth of Manhunter’s character, Lennix asked Snyder if Manhunter will reveal himself to be Swanwick exclusively for his Justice League cut or Manhunter was really Swanwick all along the DCEU.

Snyder confirmed that Martian Manhunter and General Swanwick were always supposed to be one and the same, and were not new characters exclusive to the Snyder Cut. Check out Snyder’s quote below:

“Swanwick and Martian Manhunter, it’s like his alter-ego, that’s kind of the way I see it. And if you notice the way he’s manipulated both Lois and Clark to be the best they can be, because, you know, in this incarnation he wants humanity to kind of do it themselves, and/or through this new hero, in Superman. And I think that that’s kind of the way I see it, that he’s, you know, they have the same voice.”

Zack Snyder

Martian Manhunter, originally J’onn J’onzz, is a wildly popular alien hero of the DC universe featuring in cartoons, films, live-action series, video games, and more. Accidentally transported to Earth and becoming a founding member of the Justice League, his powers include super-strength, flight, shapeshifting, and telepathy.

Audiences have known for a while that General Swanwick is supposed to reveal himself as Martian Manhunter. Fan theories of Martian Manhunter influencing events on earth as a top government official has been around since Man of Steel came out in 2013. But it was in October 2019 that Snyder first showed off the storyboards for Martian Manhunter’s reveal in the film and the theories were finally proven true. With the Snyder Cut just about ready to come out in all its glory, it remains to be seen what Snyder has in store for this intergalactic hero.