In some other parallel world out there, one in which the critical reactions had been kinder and the box office take bigger, Zack Snyder’s still in charge of the DCEU and is filling out his multi-movie plan for the heroes of the DC universe. In this timeline we’re stuck in, however, Snyder was removed by Warner Bros. during production of Justice League after Man of Steel and Batman V Superman became two of the most controversial superheroes movies around. If he hadn’t, though, it seems we could’ve got a whole trilogy of films featuring the titular team.
Industry insider Neil Daly – who’s in charge of organizing DC’s test screenings and relaying the feedback to the studio – has revealed that Snyder originally had a six-movie plan for the franchise. He got to make three of them and the rest would’ve consisted of Man of Steel 2 and Justice League 2 and 3. This is news to us, as we’ve previously been informed that the filmmaker had a vision mapped over five films instead of six. Specifically, we didn’t know Snyder wanted to make a third JL after the second one.
As is well-documented by now, the first Justice League would have ended with the promise that Darkseid himself would arrive on Earth in the sequel, with the storyline then dovetailing with the Knightmare sequence from back in BvS. Fans have theorized that we also could’ve seen an Injustice-inspired dark Superman and an answer to all that “Lois is the key” stuff.
Furthermore, Snyder recently revealed that Batman would’ve sacrificed himself at the climax of this mega-storyline, with Clark and Lois having a son that they name Bruce after their fallen comrade. If this was the plan, it’s possible it could’ve all happened in Justice League 3.
At this stage, though, we’d be surprised if we even get a Justice League 2. Perhaps if the likes of Wonder Woman 1984 and Shazam! are successful, Warner Bros. might entertain the idea of getting the team back together again, but as of now, we wouldn’t hold our breath for that to happen.
