Though I’m a lover of film trivia – especially when it pertains to the superhero genre – and actually hope for a Zack Snyder cut of Justice League to one day adorn my shelf much like Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, I’m not holding my breath waiting for it. Furthermore, I don’t think it helps matters when the cult favorite director just won’t stop beating the dead horse that was his original vision for the DC Extended Universe. Hey, the majority of moviegoers said “no,” so Warner Bros. moved on. Let’s just accept that. Oh, you can argue how Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice made almost $900 million – but the majority of that came in the first two weeks. After that, it sank like a stone.
As you may have heard, Snyder said that a cut of his Justice League tale does indeed exist while speaking at a recent BvS screening, though he admitted it’s ultimately up to WB if it were to ever see the light of day. But to put icing on the cake – and a fat, juicy cherry on top – he revealed how Darkseid factored into what had been originally outlined by he and screenwriter Chris Terrio.
As you can imagine, it all had to do with that unforgettable Knightmare scene in BvS:
“The truth is that, the Knightmare sequence in this movie was always my idea that all of that would eventually be explained … and that we would end up in the distance future, where Darkseid has taken over Earth and where Superman has succumbed to the Anti-Life [Equation] … There was a few members of the Justice League that had survived in that world, that they were fighting. Batman broke a pact with Cyborg because something happened… They were working on an equation to jump Flash back to tell Bruce…”
To me, this sounds like something saved for Justice League 2, or at least the cliffhanger to the first one. Additionally, he teased this scrapped post-credits scene:
“The Justice League teaser that wasn’t in the movie, apparently, I guess, where Wonder Woman says, it’s this line where Bruce says ‘I was right here when Barry Allen came to me and he said Lois Lane is the key,’ and she says ‘She is, to Superman. Every heart has one.’ And he goes, ‘I think it’s something more, something darker.’”
Continuing on that note, it’s reinforced that the loss of Lois would’ve made it easier for Superman to succumb to the Anti-Life Equation:
“If Superman knew that somehow it was Bruce’s responsibility to protect Lois, he would have been mad at him in [Batman v Superman]. So that’s why he says ‘She was my world, and you took her from me.’”
Being a huge fan of Darkseid, I would like to see Snyder’s Justice League get the direct-to-video treatment within my lifetime because I felt shortchanged by the studio shifting all the focus to Steppenwolf, who’s essentially a lackey. Yes, I believe the movie we ultimately received was enjoyable, yet not the one DC’s most iconic heroes deserved. Then again, the majority of fans didn’t dig the darkness presented by Snyder as I pointed out earlier, so it seems like we’ll forever be talking in circles. Maybe one day Hollywood will find the next Bruce Timm and put him in charge of live action flicks.