Zack Snyder Wishes Gal Gadot Happy Birthday With New Justice League Image

Justice League director Zack Snyder wished star Gal Gadot a happy birthday with an image of a deleted scene from the movie. Turning 33 years old on Monday, Gadot has DC fans waiting patiently for her return in 2019’s Wonder Woman 2. And although Justice League turned out to be a critically polarizing film and a disappointment at the box office, it’s hardly because of Gadot, who in the wake of Wonder Woman has emerged as the DC cinematic universe’s brightest star.

Snyder, meanwhile, left Justice League before it was finished as he grieved with his family after the death of his daughter – but there’s also a rumor he was fired from the DCEU last year. Either way, the director was always fairly active on the artist-geared social network Vero, where he’s frequently shared photos and other content related to the making of Justice League. He decided to honor Gadot on her birthday with one of the movie’s unreleased scenes.

Wishing a happy birthday to his “amazing friend” on Gadot’s birthday, Snyder posted an image to his Vero account of Gadot as Diana Prince in a scene that didn’t make the final theatrical cut of Justice League. The photo depicts Diana Prince in a mysterious, dark location, staring at something while holding a torch. It’s unclear where Diana is located in the photo, but it’s possible that she ventured to the Shrine of the Amazons. That’s where Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) fired an arrow as a warning to her about the arrival of Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds). Check it out below:

That unreleased scene joins another mystery clip featuring Ray Fisher as Victor Stone/Cyborg in a football game, which the actor spotlighted through his own Vero account. Snyder has also posted a shot from a deleted scene featuring the Justice League heroes at Clark Kent’s grave.

Ultimately, the Gadot deleted scene likely didn’t do enough to move the story forward in order to keep it within the movie’s theatrical run time. It wasn’t strong enough to be included on the Blu-ray set, either. The home release of Justice League focused a lot on Superman’s deleted scenes, which revealed his black suit and fleshed out his story effectively. But in a number of ways, Gadot has grown into the most bankable name on DC’s cinematic roster, in large part to her own merits in her performances as Wonder Woman.

The massive success of Gadot’s first solo turn only further drove home that point, to the extent that Snyder popped up to honor her birthday in appropriate fashion. The director showed that fans should still keep an eye on his Vero posts, because there’s still unseen content from Justice League to be released.