We’ve all wanted Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut since the very moment he took compassionate leave from the project and Joss Whedon stepped in to take over. But here’s something you probably didn’t know existed and now probably want with every ounce of your being: a Justice League trilogy that involves Darkseid, Green Lantern, huge space battles, and a mid-trilogy ending that would’ve gone neck and neck with Avengers: Infinity War in the devastation stakes.
As revealed by Kevin Smith on his Fatman Beyond podcast (H/T SlashFilm), a chance meeting during a Star Wars 9 set visit with a few members of crew who worked on Justice League saw the entire trilogy arc outlined.
So, let’s take this in order. The first Justice League, according to Smith, was more or less going to be the same – with a couple of key differences to help set up the sequels. “[At the end of the movie], the boom tube opened up and [Justice League] saw Darkseid and he saw them… boom tube closes and that’s the end of the f—ing movie, with them knowing there’s something out there.”
How the Justice League would deal with that “something out there” was through a character that it was heavily rumoured would show up: Green Lantern. It turns out, he was meant to be a part of the first movie. “Do you remember that shot of Alfred going ‘Thank god you’re here’?” Smith explains. “They had green lights flashing on [Alfred actor] Jeremy Irons… because it was Green Lantern.”
From there, Justice League 2 would’ve taken things to outer space as the Justice League fought alongside the Lantern Corps on Darkseid’s home planet of Apokolips. Spoiler for a movie that will never come out: it doesn’t end well. In a villain-winning twist worthy of Infinity War, Darkseid enslaves Earth and reduces it to the apocalyptic nightmare than Batman glimpsed in Batman v Superman. That’s a bit more impactful than a snap, if you ask me.
Justice League 3 would then have been “the heroes’ last stand against Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips.” No time travel, no multiverses, no MCU-style trickery, just one big final showdown that, by that point, would’ve been years in the making.
But, yeah, we’re never going to get it – so I’ve just made you even more angry, haven’t I? Sorry!
Oh, what could have been. Still, these DC Extended Universe movies that are on the horizon, from Birds of Prey to Wonder Woman 1984, mean that the future is in good hands.
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