'Justice League’ Changed Cyborg in Reshoots to Make the Movie Fun

The DC Extended Universe has gained a reputation for being “darker and edgier” than the rival Marvel Cinematic Universe, but at the last minute, Warner Brothers is trying to brighten things up a bit for Justice League. Director Joss Whedon is in the midst of extensive reshoots, and actor Joe Morton, says the film’s tone has gotten lighter as a result. Specifically, because of changes they’ve made to the character Cyborg.

In an interview with IGN, Morton, who plays Cyborg’s father Dr. Silas Stone, noted that his involvement with the reshoots was “just really small bits and pieces. But, he said “adjustments” were made to Cyborg, as played by Ray Fisher (The Astronaut Wives Club). “I know that … there were some adjustments that they made in terms of the tone of that character,” Morton said. “I think what I heard was that there was a need from the studio to lighten up the film in a way, that the film felt too dark.”

Morton admits he doesn’t know the full extent of the conversations that were had by the studio. But it does make sense that of all the Justice Leaguers, it would be Cyborg who would get a tonal makeover. In the comics, Cyborg is a collegiate athlete turned robot after being ravaged by interdimensional monsters. In the interview, Morton made comparisons to Frankenstein’s Monster and calls Silas Stone a modern day Frankenstein.

“Frankenstein is what I always thought of [my ‘Terminator 2’ character] Miles was, in a way, the modern day Frankenstein. And I suppose in a certain sense so is Silas Stone,” Morton said. “Victor has no alias, he has no way of hiding behind another personality or some sort of mask in order to protect themselves. He is very much like Frankenstein … again in that there’s no disguising who he is. So that what I think ends up happening is that section of the movie and certainly that character, Cyborg, is a metaphor for being The Other.”

Justice League will be released on November 17.