Justice League Zack Snyder’s Original Justice League Sequels Plans Discussion Thread

[SwordOfMorning]

The thing is, the only interesting conflict in the outline is Bruce falling in love with Lois and then being forced to resuscitate her dead superboyfriend. If you take that out it's just a bunch of guys in costumes fighting plot devices.

Just to be clear, I think Bruce & Lois is a terrible idea for this franchise and the DCU, but it is kind of the big conflict of the whole saga imo.

Yeah, I'm still shocked it was the heart of the whole enterprise when they began.

 

[Calvin Ellis]

It sounds like a conspiracy theory and I never believed it but...there's a lot of coincidences in the similarities between this and IW/Endgame(even with BvS and CW). Here's what we know :

- GJ was involved in the mapping out of the arc in 2014.
- GJ is close friends with Feige.
- Feige has said before he went in the Civil War direction, after he heard DC were doing BvS, so he does take inspiration from other ideas.

Now leak sounds heinous, and even though I dont like GJ anymore, he's been a DC man for life. I wouldnt be suprised if he was just geeking out with Feige and was like "You know there's this cool thing we're doing...".

The whole conspiracy theory about the DCEU started when it is rumored that the plans for BvS and all of the JL movies were leaked and once those leaks happened a few weeks later Marvel changed their whole direction on everything. It's also funny how similar IW/EG are to JL when that movie was written about a year before the other two movies had a director or writers attached.

The thing is, the only interesting conflict in the outline is Bruce falling in love with Lois and then being forced to resuscitate her dead superboyfriend. If you take that out it's just a bunch of guys in costumes fighting plot devices.

Just to be clear, I think Bruce & Lois is a terrible idea for this franchise and the DCU, but it is kind of the big conflict of the whole saga imo.

The only way I would accept this story line is if it was a one time thing that happened out of grief on Lois side and Bruce caught feelings while Lois admits it was a mistake and she loves and is not over Clark.

 

[MbJ]

The whole conspiracy theory about the DCEU started when it is rumored that the plans for BvS and all of the JL movies were leaked and once those leaks happened a few weeks later Marvel changed their whole direction on everything.

To clarify, they changed their plan for Captain America 3. There is no indication "they changed their whole direction on everything." Even prior to the announcement of Justice League, they'd been hinting at the big showdown with Thanos since the ending of the first Avengers movie in 2012. The only change that happened is that the second part of the finale was renamed Avengers: Endgame instead of Avengers: Infinity War Part 2.

My biggest issue with the plagiarism theory was and still remains the idea that Marvel, who had the much more successful franchise even at the time, would feel the need to rip off Snyder's arc after BVS went over so divisively.

 

[Calvin Ellis]

To clarify, they changed their plan for Captain America 3. There is no indication "they changed their whole direction on everything." Even prior to the announcement of Justice League, they'd been hinting at the big showdown with Thanos since the ending of the first Avengers movie in 2012. The only change that happened is that the second part of the finale was renamed Avengers: Endgame instead of Avengers: Infinity War Part 2.

And the fact that it was originally announced as one movie that became 2 when JL 1 & 2 were announced and the fact the original plans for JL were written or outlined during the planning of BvS. Which once again if you go by rumors were all leaked.

 

[MbJ]

And the fact that it was originally announced as one movie that became 2 when JL 1 & 2 were announced

Infinity War wasn't announced as one movie. While there had been a "duh" assumption there would be a third movie, Marvel didn't announce Infinity War until late 2014 and it was as a two-parter. You can claim that might have been influenced by Justice League, but given there was a few weeks between the announcement of the two, I have a very hard time imagining they weren't already plotting out the big Thanos smackdown as more than one film.

More to the point, making the big finale a two-part movie predates Justice League anyway, with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being the obvious example.

 

[Calvin Ellis]

Once again I don't believe these conspiracy theories but it's hard to ignore them when the BvS & the JL movies were all outlined around the same time together which is why it took so long to shoot BvS because they wanted to get everything together and all the people cast. But as I was saying it is hard to ignore when this stuff was being plotted out and leaked while Marvel was filming AOU and then after the leaks they changed direction.

 

[MbJ]

That's just it, though. The "change in direction" cited was them announcing it as a two-part movie, which we don't know wasn't already the case since, as I said, they never announced Infinity War as a single movie. Most of the other plot points that tend to get cited as proof of stealing Snyder's ideas (the hero sacrificing himself at the end, an older hero mentoring a younger one, heavy use of time travel, a finale involving a massive clash between two armies) are all either things that were already present in Marvel's comics or just tropes that are super common in fiction already.

Logan also involves an older superhero forming a bond with a younger one and then sacrificing his life at the end for the greater good. Were they also ripping off Snyder's 5 film arc?

 

[Calvin Ellis]

That's just it, though. The "change in direction" cited was them announcing it as a two-part movie, which we don't know wasn't already the case since, as I said, they never announced Infinity War as a single movie. Most of the other plot points that tend to get cited as proof of stealing Snyder's ideas (the hero sacrificing himself at the end, an older hero mentoring a younger one, heavy use of time travel, a finale involving a massive clash between two armies) are all either things that were already present in Marvel's comics or just tropes that are super common in fiction already.

Logan also involves an older superhero forming a bond with a younger one and then sacrificing his life at the end for the greater good. Were they also ripping off Snyder's 5 film arc?

The change in direction wasn't just IW/EG but Civil War as well. Once again if the rumors are true and the DCEU plans were leaked while Marvel was shooting AOU it really explains how a movie that was thought out and planned years before those two movies were suddenly follow almost the same plot and are very similar. And it doesn't help matters that Feige out right admitted as much.

 

[MbJ]

The change in direction wasn't just IW/EG but Civil War as well. Once again if the rumors are true and the DCEU plans were leaked while Marvel was shooting AOU it really explains how a movie that was thought out and planned years before those two movies were suddenly follow almost the same plot and are very similar. And it doesn't help matters that Feige out right admitted as much.

He admitted Civil War, yes. And like I just said, my issue there is the claim they almost follow the same plot and not just a bunch of common comic book, fiction and ending tropes. Justice League has superficial similarities to the first Avengers. Did he rip them off or is it that they're both superhero ensemble movies using tried and true superhero tropes? I'm leaning towards the latter.

 

[SupermanFan]

My biggest issue with the plagiarism theory was and still remains the idea that Marvel, who had the much more successful franchise even at the time, would feel the need to rip off Snyder's arc after BVS went over so divisively.

Exactly, you’re already getting great reviews and making bank while the person they’re accused of ripping off were getting neither. It literally make no sense. As I’ve said before if you’re getting A grades you don’t copy from someone who isn’t.

Also on Civil War the only thing they changed was they made it a versus movie as opposed to a solo Cap movie. So they basically only copied the concept because they thought they had to react to a film about Batman & Superman.

 

[Herolee10]

Overall, it seems like Affleck's Batman would have been the "Wolverine" of the DCEU with Henry's Superman being its Cyclops.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Overall, it seems like Affleck's Batman would have been the "Wolverine" of the DCEU with Henry's Superman being its Cyclops.

God, that’s exactly what this original plan feels like.

 

[MbJ]

Does that mean we would've gotten Lois and Bruce making love in the Hall of Justice's infirmary?

 

[Eddie Dean]

It's pretty clearly a Lancelot and Guinevere parallel, except if Le Morte d'Arthur ended with Malory going "and henceforth all the lords of England and beyond came upon the realization that Arthur was a lame **** and that Lancelot, the coolest of the knights who uses a big sword to cut off a guy's head, totally stole Arthur's girl and she was too good for Arthur anyway, but also Arthur raised their child because he was a **** and Lancelot was off doing cool stuff".

 

[SupermanFan]

God, that’s exactly what this original plan feels like.

Thankfully it was rejected and even if we get sequels won’t be a part of it.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

It's pretty clearly a Lancelot and Guinevere parallel, except if Le Morte d'Arthur ended with Malory going "and henceforth all the lords of England and beyond came upon the realization that Arthur was a lame **** and that Lancelot, the coolest of the knights who uses a big sword to cut off a guy's head, totally stole Arthur's girl and she was too good for Arthur anyway, but also Arthur raised their child because he was a **** and Lancelot was off doing cool stuff".

If he really wanted to follow Excalibur then Knightmare Batman should’ve just been a hairy, homeless doomsday preacher Affleck running around the wasteland.

 

[Eddie Dean]

A witch should have tricked Alfred into using the Charm of Making to trap himself within the crystal realm!

 

[SiegePerilous]

Just to go all in with this Excalibur stuff, would Supergirl be brought in to function as Morgane Le Fey?

Overall, it seems like Affleck's Batman would have been the "Wolverine" of the DCEU with Henry's Superman being its Cyclops.

Holy crap, you're right.

Does that mean we would've gotten Lois and Bruce making love in the Hall of Justice's infirmary?

"Hallelujah" playing in the background.

 

[Herolee10]

@herolee10 he’s confirmed this morning on the FilmJunkee show that those plans were initial and how it’s a process. He’s even said those plans evolved back then so these aren’t what would have happened anyway.

True. But what's concerning is the fact that he had even thought about going down that route from the start.

If Warner Bros hadn't intervened, then we would have definitely gotten a Lois/Bruce romance. Plus, Snyder had still planned on going full swing with the "Knightmare" timeline where Superman became Darkseid's puppet. To have Superman become the villain after being resurrected feels like it's counterproductive to his overall arc.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Just to go all in with this Excalibur stuff, would Supergirl be brought in to function as Morgane Le Fey?

Morgane Le Fey is a canonical DC character! Use her again!

 

[SiegePerilous]

Morgane Le Fey is a canonical DC character! Use her again!

No but Clark is Athur, so it has to be a relative of his

Kara draws the short straw

 

[king666]

The only way I would accept this story line is if it was a one time thing that happened out of grief on Lois side and Bruce caught feelings while Lois admits it was a mistake and she loves and is not over Clark.

Honestly I'm fine with Lois moving on and finding a new lover. It's... not realistic to expect someone to be "faithful" after the death of a partner, imo. Unfortunately we're not talking about real life, we're talking about super-powered people wearing tight costumes and fighting aliens. Nobody expects their dead boyfriend to come back from the dead. Superman's resurrection makes this whole thing so ****ing uncomfortable. It's a ****ty idea if we're talking about a healthy, long-term DC/Superman/Batman saga.

 

[DlAMONDZ]

So how much of this made it into the OG script?

Obviously the Lois/Bruce stuff didn't. I'm guessing Deadshot and Riddler were replaced by Deathstroke/Joker and the legion of doom got dropped completely (although WB brought the idea back for the theatrical cut for some reason)

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Still laughing about a disheveled Riddler retreating to the Canadian wilderness, solving the anti life equation and proceeding to blow his brains out.

“Time to solve the last riddle” bwahahahahahahaha

 

[idiot09]

Still laughing about a disheveled Riddler retreating to the Canadian wilderness, solving the anti life equation and proceeding to blow his brains out.

“Time to solve the last riddle” bwahahahahahahaha

That sounds so sick tho ngl. I even dug the riddle mark underneath his eye Earth One style