Zack Snyder has confirmed that his Justice League movie was supposed to be the first in a trilogy of movies – but that such a plan will never see the light of day.
The director spoke to Total Film magazine (per GamesRadar) ahead of the Justice League Snyder Cut's release, and divulged what his initial plans for the DC superhero team up were. Snyder explained that, while he saw Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League as a three-story arc, he had also originally planned to make two more Justice League instalments.
"Frankly, it was meant as the primer for another two [Justice League] movies," Snyder said. "Not that those movies are ever going to get photographed, I don't see that happening – and it stays true to that concept. It was meant to be like Lord Of The Rings and not a one-off. That's the way I think about it.”
Snyder also revealed that he sees Justice League as its own standalone movie, despite the great work that Patty Jenkins and James Wan had done with solo adventures for Wonder Woman and Aquaman respectively.
"I love Patty and I think she's done an amazing job," he continued. "And James has done a great job – they've made their own movies. But I just thought, 'I’m gonna stay the course that I thought was cool.' There's a bunch of stuff I do differently than what they do, but I just think of Justice League as its own thing at this point. It exists kind of on its own."
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What were Zack Snyder's Justice League plans?
This isn't the first time that Snyder has opened up on a potential Justice League trilogy. As stated, the director had envisioned two more entries in the franchise while he was developing the first movie. However, Snyder stepped away from its production in May 2017 following a family tragedy, which resulted in Joss Whedon taking directing duties.
With the theatrical cut being poorly received upon release, Warner Bros and DC Comics have moved away from an interconnected universe akin to the MCU. Instead, the companies are building the DC Extended Universe - or DCEU - which allows filmmakers to tell various stories about different incarnations of popular DC superheroes. This has enabled Warner and DC to reboot Batman and produce standalone Wonder Woman and Aquaman movies without worrying about continuity errors.
This leads us back to Snyder's Justice League. With an MCU-style plan thrown out of the window, sequels to the director's initial vision won't happen now. That hasn't stopped Snyder from teasing what could have been for his trilogy, though. He's revealed that the Snyder Cut will contain a a huge superhero cameo at its climax, and he recently told IGN that the film will end with a massive cliffhanger.
In a separate IGN article, Snyder also confirmed that Justice League 2 would have been set in the Knightmare world that Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne had a premonition of in Batman v Superman. Those comments came a week after DC megafan Kevin Smith had teased a similar outcome (as reported by SyFy) on his Fatman Beyond podcast.
Zack Snyder's Justice League arrives on March 18 on HBO Max.
