Zack Snyder’s Justice League Reveals New Photos of Darkseid and the League

The heroes of Zack Snyder’s Justice League unite against Darkseid (Ray Porter) in the newest photos from the Snyder Cut. In the four-hour and R-rated director’s cut coming to HBO Max on March 18, Batman (Ben Affleck) enlists Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to bring together the team of metahumans needed to ward off the dastardly Darkseid, DeSaad (Peter Guinness), and Apokolips General Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds). Recruiting underseas ruler Aquaman (Jason Momoa), the Scarlet Speedster known as the Flash (Ezra Miller), and the part man, part machine Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Batman’s league of heroes is only complete with the return of a black-suited Superman (Henry Cavill).

In new photos released by Total Film, Darkseid looms large while the Justice League — sans Superman — prepare for the final battle against Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons.

“I’m not going to give it away but the dynamic between the two of them, some things happened in the past. There’s a bunch of issues between them and so, yeah, I think that all plays out,” director Zack Snyder teased about the relationship between Steppenwolf and his nephew Darkseid during a recent appearance at the virtual IGN Fan Fest. “Yes, the answer is there’s quite a complex relationship there.”

Zack Snyder’s Justice League restores Porter’s role cut from the theatrical cut of Justice League that was released in 2017 — a version Porter says he couldn’t bring himself to watch — and the actor is hopeful he will one day return as Darkseid should Snyder ever continue his vision for the “SnyderVerse.”

“We would end up in the distant future where Darkseid has taken over Earth, and where Superman has succumbed to the Anti-Life [Equation],” Snyder said in 2019 about the “Knightmare” world that would have played a larger role in a Justice League 2. “And there were a few members of the Justice League that survived to that world, and they were fighting, Batman and a broken half of Cyborg — there’s only half of him because of whatever happened — they were working on an equation to jump back to tell Bruce [during Batman v Superman]… those were the things that we were dealing with.”

Starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Ciarán Hinds, Ray Porter, Joe Manganiello, and Jared Leto, Zack Snyder’s Justice League releases March 18 on HBO Max.