In many ways, Justice League was a disappointment to the legion of DC fans who’d been waiting for a movie based on the team of super-friends for decades. One scene that didn’t fail to excite, though, was the “history lesson” flashback sequence which depicted the first time the forces of Apokolips attacked Earth. While it stopped short of showing us Darkseid himself, it did feature a team-up between Atlanteans, Amazons, Greek Gods and even a stray Green Lantern or two.
This new piece of concept art (seen in the gallery below, along with some recently released BTS shots), however, reveals that there was originally more to the flashback. Most notably, there was once another Apokoliptian villain featured in the sequence, rather than just Steppenwolf. It could just be an early design of the horn-headed space invader, but the evidence suggests it’s a completely separate character.
Justice League introduced audiences to only the bare bones of Jack Kirby’s extensive Fourth World mythology. Other than Steppenwolf, we got a couple of name-drops of Apokolips and one solitary reference to Darkseid. Originally, the plan was for Zack Snyder to fully tackle the mythos in Justice League 2, which would have seen the big bad ruler of Apokolips make his DCEU debut. Unfortunately, however, the sequel has been effectively scrapped.
On the plus side, though, it looks like another film will step into its place and run with what was set-up in Justice League. A Wrinkle In Time‘s Ava DuVernay has just been announced to be helming a New Gods movie, meaning fans will get the chance to see the likes of Mister Miracle, Big Barda, Darkseid and many more on the big screen in the near future. Assuming that things go smoothly on the project, that is.
In related news, there’s been quite a bit of concept art circling around for Justice League lately, including a look at a new Green Lantern, a deleted scene featuring Lex Luthor, the unseen priests of Apokolips and more. And with the film currently on Blu-ray/DVD (grab it here), you can be sure that more goodies will surface soon.
