Of all the movies from the DC Extended Universe, if there’s one fanbase that’s stronger than the others, it’s Zack Snyder’s. With his Justice League involving the most loved characters – Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman, the visionary had a master plan for the franchise that would’ve turned it into one of the best of all time, better than even the MCU maybe.
But as the series of unfortunate events unfolded, Snyder ended up leaving the DC Universe, much to the fans’ disappointment, and his dreams for the franchise never came true. Regardless, the legendary filmmaker still shared his ideas and revealed the reason behind his sudden exit from the multi-billion dollar franchise in an interview.
What Zack Snyder Had In Mind For The Justice League
Zack Snyder, being the marvelous visionary that he is, had envisioned the perfect story for the Justice League, right from the beginning. Though it never got around to being released, the filmmaker still shared his ideas in an interview. Revealing how Darkseid comes to earth while Lex Luthor teams up with The Riddler to together find and figure out the Anti-Life Equation with Batman on their trail, he said,
“The Riddler tells him, ‘I thought it was a riddle, but it turns out to be the end of the world.’ But Lex gives the anti-life equation to Darkseid upon his arrival, along with the information that ‘if you kill Lois Lane’—now pregnant—’you will be able to control Superman, and he will succumb to the Anti-Life Equation.’”
The Anti-Life Equation is basically a thing that allows the user to control everything in the universe, making everyone’s will his own.
“So Darkseid arrives. He gets in a fight with Superman, but he makes it to the Batcave, where Lois is hiding. Batman isn’t able to save her and Darkseid eyebeams her just as Superman shows up, and Superman, in his grief, succumbs to Anti-Life and then the Earth falls. Because with Superman on his side, you can imagine Darkseid is pretty much unstoppable.”
He then revealed the story of the band of misfits in the distant future, that somehow survived through all this time and who aim to find one of the remaining Mother Boxes to jump Flash back in time to the Batcave to give Batman an upper hand in his fight against Darkseid so he could win and save Lois Lane.
For this, they first go to the Joker to find the Mother Box as well as the stash of Kryptonite that he knows about. However, they fail, and somehow, just in time, Flash manages to get out of his reach and jumps back in time to the Batcave at the correct moment (unlike when he jumped at the wrong time in Batman V Superman) by choosing the second option this time, as Cyborg tells him that there are two times that he could jump through. Thus, with Batman sacrificing himself to save Lane, giving Superman enough time to get there to have Darkseid retreat, the end would be something like this:
“The final act would be this giant war between Darkseid and all of his minions, all of the New Gods, the Fury, Granny Goodness, the whole pantheon of New Gods versus the Themysicarans who come off the island, Atlanteans rise out of the water. Wonder Woman is their new queen, and Arthur is the king of Atlantis. Then the armies of men all come together. That means the whole world, the whole army of the entire planet. They have a huge battle and they win. Then the end is this epilogue where it’s 20 years later, where Superman’s son has no powers. He’s born without the powers of a god, but then, in the end, he would have become the new Batman. The final scene would be Lois taking her son down into the Batcave and that kind of deal.”
All in all, Zack Snyder’s entire plan, right from the beginning, was to give small hints in each new movie about this great war that happens in the end so that after this Justice League ends, there could be a reboot with new actors and stories.
Zack Snyder Wanted Henry Cavill’s Superman As The Main Character In The Final Justice League Movie
Besides having Batman and Joker meet and the latter telling the story of killing Robin in between the sequenced movies in the entire 10 years of DC, Snyder fully had his mind on having Henry Cavill‘s Superman be the main character in the final film.
“I’ll be frank—Superman is the main character in the final film. He was always the main character in the final film in the two movies that [would have] followed this movie. And that was the bookended aspect, that it was always going to get back to being all on Superman to lead after the death of Batman. He has to become the de facto Justice League head, to hold the team together emotionally. After the fall of Earth, he becomes the main villain and then he becomes the main good guy, which I thought was a really incredible arc for him as a character, you know?”
The SnyderVerse would’ve also had the Legion of Doom, which would include Deathstroke and the League of Superheroes would have included Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter, with even a separate movie for Cyborg in planning.
The Reason Why Zack Snyder Ended Up Leaving The DCU
Also Read: Zack Snyder Did Not Want His Favorite Superhero Movie To Get Released For The Most Bizarre Reason
One of the main reasons behind Zack Snyder exiting the multi-billion dollar universe was that the studio didn’t approve of his grand vision for the Justice League. He faced extreme pressure to compete with the then-extremely successful MCU movies and got commercial criticism for Batman V Superman, with the studio throwing a barrage of story vetoes, production notes, and tonal course corrects at course corrects.
At the same time, he was going through a hard time as well, losing his daughter to suicide, and it was then that he realized that his family needed him more. Thus, he found himself exiting the franchise, giving up on everything he worked so hard for for the DC Universe.
Nonetheless, the filmmaker did end up creating and uploading his own perfectly revamped vision, a pure and untampered four-hour movie, Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max, and it has been getting startlingly amazing reviews. You can also watch it on the streaming giant!
Source: GQ
