‘Justice League’ Concept Art Shows Snyder’s Apokolips on Earth

If you’ve somehow missed the online trends, hashtags, and petitions regarding Zack Snyder’s original cut of Justice League, let’s take a second to make a couple of things very clear. First and foremost, consider yourself lucky and count your blessings, congratulations are in order. Secondly, the point I’m actually trying to make here is that the movie that was released in theaters last November was vastly different than the one that was originally planned.

Snyder had a much different, much darker version of the film that aligned more with his take on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. However, after he was replaced by Joss Whedon for the film’s hefty slate of reshoots, a much lighter tone was brought to Justice League. This allowed for a lot more humor and hope in the movie, but it also drastically changed the original design for the Steppenwolf’s takeover in the third act.

In the movie, when Steppenwolf begins transforming a small town into the home world of Darkseid, the entire scene was colorful. The skies were a bold mix of red and orange and, once the battle was over, the ground turned to bright forestry. However, the original concept art for this scene made everything look much more devastating, and brought the hell of Apokolips to Earth.

Concept artist Christian Lorenz Scheurer shared a batch of photos on his website, showing off some of his initial designs for Justice League‘s final act. As you can see in the photos below, this scene could have been a brutal affair.

The tower where Steppenwolf is based takes an even more intricate shape, and the ground around it seems to have evolved into a cosmic form. These images make it look as though the scene doesn’t even take place on Earth, and that Steppenwolf succeeded in terraforming the planet.

While this art isn’t like anything we saw in Justice League, it does seem to continue the style that was set in Batman v Superman. If you recall, the “Knightmare” scene saw Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) exploring visions of what the world could look like if it was taken over by Darkseid. The dark, dreary tone of this scene, which you can see here, lines up with the ideas Snyder had about the ending of Justice League.

Concept art like this goes to show you just how different the two versions of Justice League actually were. Which one do you prefer? Are you still hoping to see the original cut of the movie someday? Let us know your thoughts by dropping a line in the comment section below!