Zack Snyder Reveals Abandoned Justice League 2 & 3 Plots
Five years after the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (on HBO Max), the Snyderverse still refuses to die. By sharing never-before-seen storyboards from the abandoned sequels, the director reveals the scale of the apocalyptic fresco he was preparing for DC…
Even buried, the Snyderverse continues to haunt the imagination of DC fans.
Zack Snyder has just lifted a corner of the veil on what should have constituted the final arc of his saga, by sharing on Instagram several new images linked to Justice League 2 And Justice League 3two films which will never see the light of day, but whose ambition appears today more clearly than ever.
These publications are part of a series of visual memories that the filmmaker has been distilling for several weeks, between set photos and pre-production elements from his time in the DC Extended Universe. At the heart of the carousel published by Zack Snyder, several images immediately attract attention: the fifth and sixth visuals correspond to storyboards of Justice League 2 And 3until now completely new. There are also set photos bringing together Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Hippolyta, as well as a photo showing the back of Ray Fisher in the role of Cyborg.
In the caption, a cryptic sentence: “2016 it’s a lot to take in.” A way of reminding us that this vision dates back to another era – and to a universe that is now officially abandoned.
Superman under Darkseid’s control
The storyboard opens with a radical scene: “Back in the Batcave, Batman watches in horror as Darkseid takes full control of Superman. Superman turns against Batman, who only owes his survival to an extremis escape.”
The death of Lex Luthor
The descent into hell continues with Lex Luthor, convinced of having won, before finding himself facing a Superman with incandescent red eyes: “Superman stares at him, watches him burn, and the world turns red while Lex screams.”
The Knightmare, five years later
The story then takes a time jump of 5 years, fully immersing us in the universe Knightmarealready outlined in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
“Sand dunes. Smoking sun pits… Once it was Gotham. Now, like the rest of Earth, it belongs to Darkseid.”
We discover a post-apocalyptic Batman, accompanied by a motley group of resistance fighters, the survivors of the Justice League. They advance towards a ruined Wayne Manor, Flash dragging what’s left of Cyborg behind him. The scene ends with a chilling line from Bruce Wayne: “We need to get inside before dark. He’s coming…”
The final battle, united against Darkseid
But the story doesn’t end with the fall. The storyboard then describes the unification of Earth’s forces in the face of Darkseid’s invasion:
“The full-scale invasion begins. Too massive for the Justice League to face alone, but she won’t be alone.”
Led by Superman, the peoples of the world unite: armies, air forces, naval fleets. Wonder Woman and Hippolyta lead the Amazons out of Themyscira to join the battle. In the oceans, Aquaman calls on the seven kingdoms to recognize the existence of an eighth: the surface. And to fight no longer as enemies, but as allies.
These revelations confirm what fans have long suspected: Zack Snyder was preparing an apocalyptic and mythological fresco, thought of as a total clash between gods, men and monsters. A dark, radical vision that is now condemned to remain a storyboard.
Revelations which inevitably put a little extra pressure on the shoulders of James Gunn, who has taken up the torch of the DC Universe…
