Justice League Dark: Apokolips War Was Almost Called Futures End

Longtime DC Comics fans likely recognized a number of influences from the comics present in the recent release of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, the latest installment in the DC Universe animated movie canon. The final installment in the continuity that began with Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox in 2013, Apokolips War pits the combined might of the Justice League, Justice League Dark, Teen Titans, and Suicide Squad against the armies of Darkseid. "Apokolips War," then, is a pretty obvious choice for a name -- but it wasn't the only one on the table, according to the film's executive producer, James Tucker.

Minor spoilers for the film follow. One of the comics references that made its way into the film is the frightening designs of some of the cyborg Justice League members from the event series The New 52: Futures End. Given the time jump that takes place early in the movie, "Futures End" seemed like it also might be a good name at some point.

"I knew that this movie had to have elements of horror in it becuase it's a Justice League Dark movie, too, as well as a big Justice League movie to end on," Tucker told ComicBook.com. He credited director Christina Sotta with cracking the code. "And so I was like 'what can I do to mess up the Justice League?' And we were coming up with different ideas of how extreme to go. We knew a portion of the Justice League was going to be corrupted by Darkseid and we didn't know how much. At one point in the script, they just had little things on the sides of their heads controlling them. So I was like, 'No, it needs to be more messed up. It can't just be something that can fall off of them and they're back to normal; it has to be irreparable damage. And that's when Christina suggested Futures End. So we looked at the designs and I went 'oh, this is it. These are freaking horrifying.' And in fact, Futures End was a title in my head I thought we could go with....But I think DC didn't want to confuse fans into thinking it was a strict adaptation of that."

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War will see the world's greatest Super Heroes square off once-and-for-all against the despotic Darkseid – with the fate of all humanity hanging in the balance. The film will feature the largest superhero cast in the history of DC's animated movies in what is shaping up to be a truly epic crossover.

Matt Ryan (DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Constantine), Jerry O'Connell (The Death of Superman, Satanic Panic, Stand by Me) and Taissa Farmiga (The Nun, The Mule, American Horror Story) anchor the cast as Constantine, Superman and Raven, respectively – the triumvirate determined to assemble the forces necessary to lead humanity's final attack. Alongside that trio are the long-running core of Justice League voices -- Jason O'Mara (The Man in the High Castle, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as Batman, Rosario Dawson (Briarpatch, Josie and the Pussycats, Sin City) as Wonder Woman, Shemar Moore (S.W.A.T., Criminal Minds) as Cyborg and Christopher Gorham (Covert Affairs, Insatiable, Ugly Betty) as The Flash – as well as JL-adjacents Rebecca Romijn (X-Men, The Librarians) and Rainn Wilson (The Office, The Meg) as the voices of Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, respectively.

Tony Todd (Candyman, The Flash) is voice of the film's the key villain, Darkseid. The cast also boasts appearances by Camilla Luddington (Grey's Anatomy) as Zatanna, Ray Chase (Justice League Dark, Final Fantasy XV video game) as Jason Blood/Etrigan, Roger R. Cross (24, The Strain, Arrow) as John Stewart & Swamp Thing, Liam McIntyre (Spartacus: War of the Damned, The Flash) as Captain Boomerang, Hynden Walch (Teen Titans Go! Vs. Teen Titans) as Harley Quinn, Stuart Allan (Batman vs. Robin, Batman: Bad Blood) as Robin/Damian, Sachie Alessio (Batman: Hush) as Lady Shiva, and John DiMaggio (Futurama, Batman: Under the Red Hood) as King Shark.