While the SN (Snyder) cut release of "Justice League" in 2021 offered fans a glimpse of what could have been, the original plan spanned five films and culminated in a two-part "Justice League" saga that never saw the light of day. Zack Snyder's vision for the DCU was epic in scale and mythological in tone. Much was planned for the future, but it was sadly never meant to be.
Snyder's DCU was a long-form narrative arc. It began with "Man of Steel", continued with "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", and was meant to reach its crescendo with "Justice League" parts 2 and 3. According to storyboards and breakdowns Snyder revealed at events like the Snyder Con and interviews with various media outlets, the sequels would have taken the heroes to even darker, more apocalyptic territory.
In some first drafts, Batman would discover that Lois Lane is pregnant with his child. That's right. An early version of "Justice League" was going to have a romantic plotline between Bruce and Lois, though that was removed even from the SN cut. But it is Zack Snyder, so things were still going to be dark, just not "Jerry Springer baby daddy" dark.
We would discover the key event that triggered the apocalyptic nightmare future which Bruce sees in "Dawn of Justice". According to Snyder, Lois was going to be killed by Darkseid in the Batcave. After witnessing Lois's death, something he blames Bruce Wayne for, Superman was going to succumb to the anti-life equation. He was emotionally vulnerable, which would cause him to fall under Darkseid's control.
The post-apocalyptic world would have been the setting for much of the third film. With half the league dead or missing, and Superman seen as a broken god under Darkseid's control, Batman leads a ragtag resistance composed of Flash, Cyborg, Mera, and Deathstroke. To fix the Doom timeline, Snyder planned to use time travel, a major subplot would see Bruce and Cyborg working together to send the Flash back in time. But they would only have one chance. The goal was to warn Bruce Wayne that the key to saving the future is protecting Lois Lane at all costs.
In this revised timeline, Batman does just that. He would ultimately sacrifice himself to save Lois. It's this act of redemption that ultimately breaks Superman free from Darkseid's control. This would pave the way for a final massive showdown between the Justice League and Darkseid's forces, uniting the world's heroes for one last battle.
In Snyder's version of the epilogue, peace is restored and Superman steps into a new role as a hero and a father. Snyder revealed that he originally planned for Lois to be pregnant, but with Clark's child. Whether you loved or loathed his tone, there's no denying it was bold, committed storytelling.
And despite the ambitious roadmap and devoted fan base, Warner Brothers chose to pivot. Eventually, the DCU was dismantled and James Gunn's rebooted DC Universe took its place. What do you think? Would Snyder's five-part epic have given the DCU the grand finale it deserved, or was a reboot inevitable? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for watching Screen Rant. See you next time.