With yesterday’s big news confirming that the folks at Warner Bros. are basically reworking the entire DCEU with a brand-new “Suicide Squad” reboot and a completely different Ben Affleck-less “Batman,” it would appear that the last remnants of the Snyder-Verse are long gone. Well, to put a final cap on the original Zack Snyder-filled plans for the DC Extended Universe, Kevin Smith is here to spill the beans on what fans could have expected in the three “Justice League” films.
Yes, you read that right. Three films. Back when Snyder was still the golden boy of WB, preparing to unleash a cinematic universe to rival the MCU, the director had plans for a trilogy of “Justice League” films that (at the time) would have been bigger than anything Marvel Studios cooked up. Of course, that all changed with the critical failures of ‘Batman v Superman’ and “Suicide Squad,” leading to Snyder being excommunicated from his “Justice League” and replaced by Joss Whedon. Alas, Kevin Smith is here to give fans the general idea of what could have been.
Speaking on his podcast Fatman Beyond, Smith breaks down a meeting he had with creative folks that worked on special effects for “Justice League” (both Whedon and Snyder versions). Smith says that famed comic book artist Jim Lee had completed storyboards for each of the three films and these folks had seen them all. And while you can watch the full breakdown in the video below, we’ll do our best to give you the general bullet points.
“Justice League Part 1”
As far as this film goes, not much would have changed, minus the ending. The ending of the first “Justice League” would finish with the JL beating Steppenwolf (remember him?). However, a boomtube would have opened with big bad Darkseid on the other side looking at the team, with the team looking at him. This would have given the League the idea that the real threat was out there.
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Also of note, Smith says the scene in the trailer for the film, where Alfred mutters the line “Let’s just hope you’re not too late” wasn’t referring to Superman, as everyone assumed. Instead, it would have referred to Green Lantern, which would have set up the League’s trip to space in the sequel.
“Justice League Part 2”
The sequel would have the team venture to space to fight Darkseid on his home turf, similar to how “Avengers: Infinity War” played out. Adding to the force of the League would have been the Green Lantern Corps, making their big debut. And also similar to how ‘Infinity War’ played out, the ending of ‘Part 2’ would have featured Darkseid defeating the heroes and making his way to Earth, with the ending being the villain leveling the planet, creating the dystopic future seen in ‘BvS.’
“Justice League Part 3”
According to Smith, the third film in the trilogy would be the League attempting to save Earth and fight Darkseid one last time. The look and feel of the film would have been exactly what was shown in the flash-forward that Batman experienced in ‘BvS.’ One can assume the heroes would finally triumph.
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We’ve been difficult on Snyder’s DC films for a while now. “Man of Steel,” ‘BvS,’ and “Justice League” weren’t our cups of tea. However, if these descriptions are accurate, it’s clear that the filmmaker had a very distinct vision for the superhero universe. And seeing now how everything played out with Whedon’s Frankensteined version of “Justice League,” perhaps WB would have been right to keep the original filmmaker involved.
However, what’s done is done, and maybe there’ll be a great documentary about the Snyder-Verse films that never were. But until then, we got a pretty kick-ass “Batman” and “Suicide Squad” to look forward to, right?