Zack Snyder Reveals ‘Justice League’ Original Ending

Zack Snyder seems to be free of whatever shackles confidentiality that Warner Bros. had him under. The DC Extended Universe architect has recently been very candid and vocal with fans who are still inquiring about what could’ve been with Justice League, based on everything from speculation to examination of concept art and unused footage from Snyder’s early version of the film.

Today Snyder dropped a pretty big confirmation on DCEU fans: a scene from his ending of the Justice League movie, which set up the introduction of an even-bigger threat to the Earth:

This ending with the team gathered in front of a Boom Tube seems to sync with a lot of the other details that Snyder has dropped in the last few weeks. Those details highlight Batman v Superman‘s early references to the Mother Boxes as well as subplots in Justice League that established a much bigger foundation for Darkseid’s debut — including Young Darkseid’s role in Ancient Earth’s war with Apokolips, as well as Batman’s warning that Darkseid was returning.

Indeed, there’s growing evidence that Snyder’s original vision was the two-part Justice League movie story we heard about so long ago. Snyder seemingly had a slow-burn buildup to Darkseid’s DCEU debut planned, just like the overwhelming majority of DC fans have always said they wanted. Darkseid is such a big character in the DC Comics Universe that fans thought he should be the climatic reveal of a multi-chapter story.

Well, if you examine the scene pictured above, it seems as though this moment at the end of Justice League could’ve indeed been Darkseid’s grand debut moment. It seems possible that the Lord of Apokolips would’ve come to Earth to collect his general, Steppenwolf, after he failed to accomplish his task. Whether that task was the generic MacGuffin chase we got in the theatrical version of Justice League or something that would’ve played into the larger two-part storyline is probably the next big question folks would like Snyder to address.

While hearing Zack Snyder‘s revelations about his DCEU story arc has been interesting and fun, it’s also a frustrating reminder that Warner Bros. truly did shred his vision to pieces, and recombined it into the doubly disappointing theatrical cuts of both Batman v Superman and Justice League. It also makes it hard to sustain enthusiasm for the release of Justice League‘s theorized “Snyder Cut,” as it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the film would only be the “Part 1” tease of a much-larger finale we will never get in any form.

Are you frustrated that we didn’t get Darkseid’s debut in Justice League? Let us know in the comments!

Upcoming DC Extended Universe films include Aquaman on December 21st, Shazam on April 5, 2019, and Wonder Woman 2 on November 1, 2019.