Jack Kirby’s Grandson Thanks Justice League Director Zack Snyder For Bringing Darkseid to Life

While Darkseid ostensibly appeared in Smallville — part of the then-popular trend of having your villain be a huge cloud of smoke or something — the Lord of Apokolips will make his live-action debut in a recognizable form later this month, in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Flanked by Desaad and Granny Goodness, fans have already seen a few shots of Darkseid — and then today came a poster and a teaser. For Snyder fans, it was a day to celebrate, and at least one big Jack Kirby fan — Jeremy, Kirby’s grandson and one of the people most responsible for maintaining “The King’s” legacy — was pretty happy to see it, too.

There was a nice little give-and-take on Twitter today between Kirby, who tweeted thanks to Snyder for bringing Darkseid and company to the big-screen table, and Snyder, who replied that he was “honored to represent.” Given that this came on the heels of an encouraging tweet at Snyder from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, it seems today has been a pretty good Twitter day for the director.

You can see their exchange below.

In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman (Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.

Originally removed from the film during production amid a family crisis and jittery executives reeling from the fallout of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Snyder has always maintained that he had a near-complete film, and a vision to execute it. That vision changed, at least somewhat, when HBO Max finally came to him with a budget for reshoots and the promise that Zack Snyder’s Justice League could finally see the light of day.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League will be available to stream on HBO Max on March 18.