DCEU Fan Thinks Justice League Dark: Apokolips War Has Ties to Zack Snyder's Justice League Plans

The latest DC Universe animated movie, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, not only serves as a "finale" of sorts to stories that have been threaded through almost a decade of animated DC films, but incorporates elements from a number of DC stories. And, according to one fan theory, it's more like Zack Snyder's planned Justice League film than the final product was when it hit theaters. While that might be a bit of a stretch, it certainly isn't entirely wrong. The film incorporates a lot of ideas Snyder has expressed enthusiasm for over the years, and while their status as staple concepts in comics makes it hard to say that the movie was actually influenced by Snyder, certainly the notion that it includes some elements that likely would have made it into Snyder's planned Justice League trilogy isn't without merit.

Justice League: Running Back in Time creator Prateek Sachdeva took to Twitter last week to point out three key areas where the movie bears a resemblance to what we know about Snyder's vision for his Justice League film. If you don't already know, the Running Back in Time cut is an in-development fan edit that aims to rework Justice League into something that more closely resembles the Snyder Cut. You can see its trailer below.

The basic points he raises about Justice League Dark: Apokolips War are that its dystopian near-future, ruled by Darkseid, feels a bit inspired by the "Knightmare" sequences from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; an abrupt change of heart that Batman has in the face of killing feels a little like the infamous "Martha" moment; and that when things start to feel "personal" for Superman, his style of fighting changes.

The first point has probably the most heft to it, possibly because Jay Oliva, who worked on Snyder's DC movies as a storyboard artist, serves as an animator and director with the DC Universe movies. That means that ties between Snyder's films and anything visual in the DC Universe movies will likely be more concrete than story stuff, since Oliva could have had an impact on other around him even if he's not working on a given project.

The other two are things that are pretty common in fiction. Certainly if you're viewing the movie through the lens of being a Snyder fan, it's easy enough to see the connections that Sachdeva made. They aren't necessarily the sole interpretation of what's going on in the film, but a pretty reasonable one.

You can get Justice League Dark: Apokolips War on streaming video on demand platforms now.