The abandoned Justice League 2 and 3 conspiracy was explained by Zack Snyder

The audience finally saw Zack Snyder’s version of Justice League – – but as he relates, that wasn’t the end of his vision for the superhero saga. Snyder had a story in mind for a trilogy of Justice League films that would have covered the team’s entire war with Darkseid.

The filmmaker spent most of the years since 2017 Justice League Publish a commentary on what was cut from its four hour version and what the future story would include. The Snyder Cut ends with a cliffhanger teasing the next movie, simply because it is would ended in 2017.

“The end of the film, where we left it, was what we originally intended,” says Deborah Snyder to Polygon.

The director’s best and latest thoughts on the subject came from the press tour for the Snyder Cut and in an info dump Interview with Vanity Fairwhere he outlined the entire story of his trilogy. While we now have the first part of his vision, it seems unlikely that we will ever see Justice League 2 and 3rd. But that’s fine because he has all of the little things he’s dropped over the years.

[Ed. note: Potential spoilers for Zack Snyder’s Justice League Parts 2 and 3, should they ever get made]

Image: HBO max

The easiest way to understand the story of the trilogy is what annoyed Snyder in the Knightmares. The post-apocalyptic visions that Batman has everywhere Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice were completely absent in the theatrical version from 2017 Justice League. The visions are back Zack Snyder’s Justice Leagueand Batman isn’t the only one who gets them, they plague cyborg too.

These Knightmares portray a dire future in which much of humanity is in ruins and Superman is evil. While these were just visions in the films released to date, they would have come true later Justice League Movies thanks to the anti-life equation that we briefly explain in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

The anti-life equation is a magical spell that Darkseid uses to control the minds of most of the people on earth. While Superman would normally be resistant to something like the anti-life equation, according to Snyder’s interview-driven storytelling, Darkseid finds a way to bypass Superman’s willpower through his greatest weakness: Lois Lane.

When Superman went out to fight Darkseid, he apparently hired Bruce Wayne to protect her. During this time, Snyder planned for Lois and Bruce to begin a brief love affair – an idea that the studio apparently rejected. Eventually, Darkseid would realize that Lois was the key to Superman’s willpower and would come to kill her. As soon as Darkseid arrives, Bruce hesitates at a crucial moment and Lois dies, opening Superman to the forces of anti-life and ushering in the apocalypse.

Darkseid’s apocalypse would have looked very similar to the very last vision in the Snyder Cut. Batman, Cyborg, Flash and the ragged gang of heroes / villains would have ventured through the ruined cities, dodging Superman and trying to figure out how to fix the world. Oh, and the Joker is here too – although that wasn’t part of the original plan. “The idea with that,” says Deborah Snyder, “was that Zack said,“ Look, I’ve always wanted to do a scene with Batman and Joker, and this is my last chance to do it. “I want to take it now. ‘”

Pictured: Warner Bros. Pictures

While the details are a little blurry as to what happens next, Batman and Cyborg would eventually find a way to send Flash back in time to warn Bruce that Darkseid was coming and how to stop him. This scene actually takes place in Batman versus SupermanAs we can see, Flash appears and explains that Lois is the key. After some recently revealed storyboardsThe remaining crew may have fought Lex Luther’s Legion of Doom, while Deathstroke – who makes a brief appearance on Luther’s yacht in the film – would have been the main villain of Ben Affleck’s once-planned Batman film.

After a few time travel gimmicks Bruce would finally realize that he had to sacrifice himself to save Lois and the world – what the Joker means when he wonders in how many realities Batman had the “cajons” in which he died could.

If Lois had been saved, Superman would never have fallen under the spell of the anti-life equation, and he and the rest of the Justice League could lead the fight to Darkseid. In the end, Wonder Woman would have led the warriors of Themyscira, Aquaman would have led the Atlanteans and Superman and Flash would have led the people on earth in a “huge war” against Darkseid.

As an added treat, Snyder revealed the reason for this mysterious Force Majeure brand pregnancy test in Lois Lane’s bedside drawer. It turned out the test was positive and she and Clark would have had a baby by the end of the trilogy. Not only that, he would have been named Bruce, and the show would have ended with them taking him to the Batcave and revealing the kid as the new Batman.

Unfortunately, based on everything Snyder has said since the release of his version of Justice Leagueand of course everything he’s said in the years leading up to his announcement, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see the final two parts of his Justice League trilogy. On the other hand, we never thought the Snyder Cut would come out so we’ll just have to wait and see.