Justice League: Darkseid played bigger role in original cut

The original Justice League movie included Darkseid, who was cut before its release in theaters, according to Kevin Smith.

Justice League hit theaters about three weeks ago to mixed reactions. It brought the DC Extended Universe to a screeching halt, in terms of momentum. That won’t mean the end to anything, as Aquaman will be released in December 2018, while Green Lantern Corps, Shazam!, Wonder Woman 2 and Flashpoint movies were previously announced.

Justice League had the chance to be a different movie, one that opened things up for the DCEU. Instead, it’s faced “We want Zack Snyder’s cut” backlash, which director and comic book writer Kevin Smith recently called for.

Speaking of Smith, on the Fatman on Batman podcast (h/t CBR.com), he revealed how the DC Comics villain, Darkseid, was part of Snyder’s cut. Not only that but it prominently featured Superman.

"“Superman joins the fight and teams up with the League to defeat Steppenwolf, however, at one point, Steppenwolf tries to tempt Superman into joining his army, ready for this,” Smith said on his Fatman on Batman podcast. “This made me so f**king angry, and we see Darkseid for the first time in Superman’s vision and we see flashes of the nightmare footage that Batman had in Batman v Superman, however, Superman snaps back out of it and delivers the final blow to defeat Steppenwolf.”"

This vision could have set up Darkseid’s future in the DCEU. The same for Green Lantern, aside from a flashback sequence in the middle of Justice League. However. these cuts represent just how much Warner Bros. and Joss Whedon took out of the original cut, along with removed characters that were reported on in the summer.

It’s possible anything removed will be in deleted scenes on the DVD or Blu-Ray version of Justice League, whenever it’s released in 2018. How much remains to be seen, unless Warner Bros. gives into everyone’s demands and releases Snyder’s version in the coming weeks or months.

Eventually, the controversy will subside. Though, there’s a full year before Aquaman’s release, leaving time for more criticism and speculation to fill the newswire.

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Will we ever see Darkseid in a DCEU movie? Will Smith and others have their request granted, for Snyder’s cut to be released? Those are just two questions that remain after Justice League’s release.