Zack Snyder's Original 'Justice League' Trilogy Plans Revealed By Kevin Smith

The Snyder cut may be a thing of myth at this point, but it's true that Zack Snyder originally had big plans for an entire Justice League trilogy. But those plans were scrapped when Avengers writer/director Joss Whedon was brought in, first to do rewrites on Snyder's Justice League script and then to take over directing duties when Snyder had to exit due to a family tragedy. But now, more than a year after the release of Justice League, we're learning from an unlikely source what that trilogy would have looked like.

Filmmaker Kevin Smith had nothing to do with the actual production of Justice League, but as a Batman mega-fan and the host of the podcast Fatman Beyond, he had more insight into Snyder's original Justice League trilogy plans than any other fan. In his latest episode of Fatman Beyond, Smith revealed that while he was visiting the set of Star Wars: Episode 9 in the U.K., he was able to hang out with "people who worked on both versions of Justice League" at London's Pinewood Studios. And according to Smith, those people had access to the previsualization materials of Justice League, which gave a picture of Snyder's Justice League franchise planning.

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

So what exactly were those plans? According to Smith, the original plan for Justice League was similar to what we knew before — that the League's defeat of Steppenwolf would lead to an appearance from his boss, Darkseid. At the end of the film, Steppenwolf would be zapped back to his home planet via Boom Tube, through which the League would get their first glimpse of Darkseid. Smith described:

"[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."

Smith also revealed that the shot from the trailer of Alfred expressing gratitude to a mysterious figure was not directed at Superman, as many thought, but at Green Lantern. "Justice League 2 was going cosmic as they take the fight to Apokolips...and the Lantern Corps was involved," Smith said. But the second film would have had a devastating ending for the League, Smith said, with their fates ending "poorly, like Empire Strikes Back or Infinity War," Smith said. Darkseid would have defeated the League, conquered the Earth and reduced it the apocalytpic landscape that Batman saw in the "Knightmare" sequence from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But the last film would be the final big showdown, Smith said:

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

It's an ambitious vision, but could audiences have accepted it after the embracing the lighthearted solo outings of Wonder Woman and Aquaman? That's another big "what if," but for now, that's the closest we'll get to learning about the Snyder cut.