No, it wasn’t a dream (or maybe a nightmare). Zack Snyder’s Justice League is actually coming to HBO Max, and the director is hard at work on re-editing and post-production as we speak. Today he revealed our first look at DC uber-villain Darkseid, who did not appear in the theatrical release at all but has long been rumored to have appeared in Snyder’s version of the film.
He's coming… to HBO Max pic.twitter.com/tthWwAqzWp
— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) May 27, 2020
Don’t go looking for too many details here, as the image is incredibly blurry and low-res. But it does give us a glimpse into how Darkseid fits into the overall aesthetic of the film and shows a bit of a divergence from his comic book design. Snyder was building Darkseid up as the DCEU’s Thanos, having already teased him in Batman v Superman. The character was reportedly going to show up in the flashback exposition segments of Justice League and in a few other scenes but was ultimately cut from the movie.
Actor Ray Porter had already filmed all his scenes, so the material is there for Snyder to reinsert Darkseid into his cut of the film. Redoing some massive sequences and creating a nearly entirely CGI character based off of Porter’s performance would explain a lot of the $20-$30 million that Warner Media is reportedly dumping into this project.
Darkseid is one of DC’s biggest bad guys, and his goal is, much like with Steppenwolf in the theatrical version, to conquer the universe and enslave everyone. Given the DCEU’s nearly complete collapse, this version of the character is most likely not going to be used going forward. However, director Ava DuVernay has confirmed that Darkseid will appear in her upcoming New Gods film. While not part of any DCEU canon, his appearance in Zack Snyder’s Justice League will give fans a glimpse into what may have been.
