How A Piece Of Halo Accidentally Made It Into The Justice League Snyder Cut
It might surprise you to learn that some companies — even the large, rich ones — take cheap and easy shortcuts sometimes. For instance, there's evidence to suggest Nintendo's Virtual Console on the Wii made use of ROMs downloaded from the internet. And some developers have admitted that, rather than reference their own materials, they use fan wikis to gather details about their past games. If the internet has already done the work, why not use it — right?
Those behind the Snyder Cut of Justice League, however, recently demonstrated just how flawed this approach can be. By not doing the proper research on a key detail, Justice League appears poised to include a little piece of Halo, all by complete and total accident.
Back on March 11, a fan snapped some photos of a Justice League display in Dallas. Some shots of the Deathstroke costume revealed a symbol on the character's sword, which the fan interpreted as a reference to Batman villain Ra's al Ghul and his "League of Assassins." Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello confirmed the find on Twitter, writing, "Easter egg found." Deathstroke will reportedly see more action in the Snyder Cut of Justice League, which means you could see the symbol on your TV very soon.
Unfortunately, the bit of iconography in question has no association with the DC universe whatsoever. In a bit of a black eye for the new spin on Justice League, it was revealed that this design actually appeared in the video game Halo. Christopher Barrett, who has been at Halo and Destiny developer Bungie for a long time, broke the news on Saturday night. And if anyone would know the true origin of the image, it's him — he apparently created it himself.
"An emblem I made twenty years ago is on Deathstroke's sword I guess?" Barrett tweeted. Attached to his tweet was a side-by-side image of the badge on Deathstroke's sword and the icon Barrett created for Halo. Ouch.
How does something like this happen? The website PCGamesN theorized that it all came down to a case of lazy Googling. Perhaps someone working on the movie did a Google image search and grabbed the first symbol that popped up when looking for something associated with Ra's al Ghul. At any rate, it's a bit embarrassing. One fan on Twitter wrote, "Zack really did his homework, great Easter egg!" But after the truth about the image became known, another replied, "He's getting an F on the assignment then."
The Snyder Cut of Justice League hits HBO Max on March 18. If you want to see Deathstroke, his sword, and the most unintentional Halo Easter egg to ever exist, tune in then.