Kevin Smith reveals details on Zack Snyder’s planned Justice League trilogy

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

There was a lot of shuffling going on behind the scenes of 2017’s JUSTICE LEAGUE, including expensive reshoots and Warner Bros. bringing in Joss Whedon to replace Zack Snyder on the final reshoots/edit for the movie (Snyder was hit with a family tragedy and thus stepped away from the project). The final product is not what most people were hoping for and was considered a dud at the box office, dimming any hopes for a follow-up and sending the future of the DC film universe into a whirlwind. But there were once big plans for the League, and filmmaker and fanboy extraordinaire Kevin Smith revealed those lofty plans, which apparently included not one, not two, but three movies.

[SEE MORE]

Speaking on his “Fatman Beyond” podcast with co-host and writer Marc Bernardin (via SyFy), he talked about hearing major details about the trilogy from crew members who worked on the movie. Those same crew members were working on STAR WARS: EPISODE IX — a set Smith got to visit — and revealed to him that they got to see some incredible concept designs teasing the epic scope the trilogy was going to have.

"They saw Jim Lee breakdown boards for all three Justice League movies," Smith said.

Where it was all meant to start in the first involves some details we already knew, specifically regarding the introduction of Darkseid. Come the climax of the first movie Steppenwolf was defeated, and then the big villain would be sent back home via the Boom Tube, and it was then the team got a glimpse at Darkseid.

“[The League] saw Darkseid, and Darkseid saw them. Boom Tube closes, and that’s the end of the f***ing movie. With them all knowing there’s something out there, and we have to go.”

From there is where things get interesting. Smith continued, saying that the sequel was going to go “cosmic as they take the fight to Apokolips” and would involve the Lantern Corps. Remember that moment in the JUSTICE LEAGUE trailer (above) where Alfred (Jeremy Irons) notices someone off screen and then ominously said something about hoping he wasn’t too late? Well, most people thought it was regarding Superman, but a small group also considered the possible entry of Green Lantern. Well, that small group was right, and Smith was told by one of the crew members they had green lights on set to shine on Alfred’s face (what happened to that flash of lights, who knows), signifying the entrance of the green, space-traveling hero.

The events of the second movie were to end “poorly, like Empire Strikes Back or Infinity War,” according to Smith. The team was meant to lose, and Darkseid would go to Earth and lay waste, bringing to life the Knightmare sequence Batman (Ben Affleck) envisioned in BATMAN V. SUPERMAN. That meant the third movie was going to be all about the final showdown.

“That was going to be the entire third movie. The heroes’ last stand against Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips — holy f**k!”

[SEE MORE]

This should all be taken with a grain of salt, as this doesn’t come from an official source involved with the movies, but as pointed out by Smith in the end, if true we may have missed out on something big. That is a supremely epic vision that would’ve gone places even INFINITY WAR didn’t, and that had a pretty bleak ending. Of course, the reshuffling of things and bringing in Whedon to both rewrite the script and handle reshoots and the final edit meant a lot of this was probably scrapped for an outing that didn’t lead into so much cosmic chaos.

After the movie didn’t fare so well at the box office there has been some restructuring with the DC movies, and now they’re focused on more standalone movies and outings not linked to the connected universe (the JOKER movie). Things seem to be going well, as AQUAMAN has become the biggest DC movie ever at the box office, and plenty of people excited about SHAZAM! come April. Still, that trilogy sounded dark and epic and would’ve been a sight to see.

You can check out the whole conversation in the podcast below, and Smith starts talking about what he heard around the 33:00 mark.