Thanks almost exclusively to Zack Snyder, we’ve got a pretty good idea of how his second and third Justice League movies would have played out. The epilogue of HBO Max’s four-hour epic sets the stage for things we’re never likely to see, but during his relentless promotional campaign, the filmmaker offered up plenty of new details about how his planned five-film arc was set to continue.
Justice League 2 would have largely taken place in the Knightmare timeline, which was building towards having Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen reverse time as he’d already done during JL‘s climactic action sequence, except this time it was to save Lois Lane after her death caused Henry Cavill’s Superman to succumb to the Anti-Life Equation in the first place.
The series would have also involved the demise of Ben Affleck’s Batman, with Justice League 3 focusing on Superman as he takes charge of the team and assembles the armies of Themiscyra, Atlantis and men, leading them into one final showdown against Darkseid and his forces, in something that sounds as though it would have definitely lived up to those Lord of the Rings comparisons.
However, the epilogue of HBO Max’s Justice League already set the Dark Knight up to go out on his sword, specifically when the Joker says “I often wonder, in how many alternate timelines do you destroy the world because, frankly, you don’t have the cojones to die yourself,” which implies that his very existence is what’s caused the Knightmare world to exist in the first place.
Not only that, but it ties back to Snyder’s plans to have Bruce Wayne be the father of Lois’ baby as well, because he would have taken a much more significant interest in her personal journey, which would have culminated in him sacrificing his own life so that Lois and their child could survive and prevent the Knightmare scenario from happening at all, even if she wasn’t being entirely honest about the kid’s parentage from the beginning.
It sounds wild, convoluted and a complete deviation from comic book lore, which is admittedly right up Zack Snyder’s street, and the fans won’t rest until they get to see the remainder of the Justice League saga play out.