Justice League was intended to be a mere stopping off point in what might have been the most epic cinematic superhero adventure ever. Zack Snyder’s original plan was to launch the DCEU with Man of Steel, establish other heroes in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, bring them together in Justice League, and then have them face off against the Apokalyptian God of all Evil, Darkseid in sequels. This storyline would have meant Justice League‘s big bad Steppenwolf was a mere scout for his sinister master, with the ‘Knightmare’ sequence in Batman V Superman teasing what might have eventually come to screens.
Sadly, Warner Bros. executives got cold feet and the theatrical version excised almost all trace of Darkseid from the film. But with the Snyder Cut – now officially known as Zack Snyder’s Justice League – it seems that they’re definitely bringing him back.
In fact, Snyder posted a picture on Twitter today showing what can only be Darkseid and his army on Apokalips, and he captioned it with the following:
“He’s coming… to HBO Max”
As you can see, this looks like it might be a screengrab from a video, so it could be from the Snyder Cut itself. If so, the shot indicates that far more effects work was completed on Darkseid than we’d first assumed. And if this is the standard of shots that Warner Bros. were happy to leave on the cutting room floor, then I can’t wait to see what else Snyder has up his sleeve.
Fingers crossed that we’ll be seeing a steady stream of teaser images from him in the run-up to the 2021 release of his cut of Justice League. I don’t know about you, but I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on his Twitter account.