So, it’s been about 12 hours since “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” hit HBO Max. That means die-hard fans could have seen it three times by now. (Please tell me if you’re one of those people because that’s absolutely bonkers.) If you’ve watched the film, then you know that the Snyder Cut doesn’t just have one ending. It has a full hour of endings, plural. And if you’ve seen them, you probably have questions. Thankfully, in a new Vanity Fair interview, Snyder has answers.
Speaking about why he ended his film on a variety of cliffhangers and teases for films and stories that will likely never be told, Snyder said, “They didn’t want me to suggest more films to come. They wanted me to cul-de-sac it as much as I could. I’m like, ‘Look, that’s just not the genre.’ It’s not the comic book genre to end the story, regardless if we ever make [another] one or not.”
**Needless to say, spoilers ahead…**
Let’s talk about these endings one by one…
One of the earlier endings teases the fact that Batman bought Superman’s childhood home and saved Ma Kent from bankruptcy. In the dialogue, Bruce Wayne tells Clark Kent, “Congratulations,” alluding to a pregnancy with Lois Lane. The pregnancy would have been a huge part of the next two “Justice League” films, leading to a moment where the little Superman baby turns into the next Batman, after Bruce Wayne sacrifices himself to save the day.
“It was going to be Lois and Superman’s son,” the filmmaker said. “He doesn’t have any powers, and then he was going to end up being the new Batman.”
He added, “Twenty years later, on the anniversary of [Batman’s] death, [Clark and Lois] take young Bruce Kent down to the Batcave and they say, ‘Your Uncle Bruce would’ve been proud if you did this.’”
That would have sent fandom into a tizzy, huh? And speaking of social media exploding with discussion, the much-hyped “Knightmare” sequence that has been teased for weeks now is one of the cliffhangers in “Justice League.” The scene shows a time when the Anti-Life Equation, combined with the death of Lois, sent Superman to the dark side and Batman, Mera, Cyborg, Flash, Deathstroke, and yes, the Joker, all team up to save the day.
But why is Superman hunting his old allies? Well, apparently, Batman did a horrible job protecting Lois Lane and she died, leading Clark Kent, aka Superman, on a mission to kill the Caped Crusader.
“The world falls because Superman succumbs to the Anti-Life Equation, and that’s it,” Snyder said. “That’s what the post-apocalyptic world is: Superman just searching for Batman to kill him to get his revenge for the death of Lois.”
The very end of the film returns us to the present day where Batman is awoken by a visitor at his house—Martian Manhunter. The two have a discussion and MM flies away. But originally, the cameo would have been a much bigger surprise.
“We shot a version of this scene with Green Lantern, but the studio really fought me and said, ‘We really don’t want you to do Green Lantern,’” Snyder said. “So I made a deal with them, and they let me do this [instead].”
He added, “They were like, ‘We have plans for John Stewart and we want to do our own announcement.’ So I said all right, I’ll give you that. So [Martian Manhunter] was the compromise.”
There’s no mention of who might have been playing John Stewart in the planned tease, but if it was shot, clearly Snyder had someone on set to do the scene, right? Or maybe it was just a stand-in? We’ll have to see if the filmmaker clears that up in a future discussion.
There are actually more endings that you can read about in the Vanity Fair piece. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is available now on HBO Max.
