While there is a lot to talk about when it comes to dissecting Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a big portion of the discussion is going to end up revolving around the final scene. (Which is technically half of the final scene since it’s a dream sequence that leads into the rest of the final scene, but it’s the part of the movie that everyone means when they say “the final scene.”) This could be considered part of the review for Zack Snyder’s Justice League that was posted earlier today, but that review was already running long, and this starts to veer heavily into spoiler territory, so it’s going to be its own thing. Consider yourself warned. The rest of this article spoils a great deal of the movie as well as the (next to) last scene in the film.
So, at the end of the movie, after you’ve watched almost four hours of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, there is an extended sequence that seems to take place in the same hellscape future that Batman dreamed about in Batman v. Superman. Briefly, we see Batman, leading a ragtag group of heroes including Cyborg and Flash through a post apocalyptic landscape, leading trying to make it somewhere and avoid a danger that we’re assuming is Darkseid. The group also has Mera and Deathstroke (who apparently has some kind of grudge against Batman in one of the other present day epilogue scenes), but the big reveal is that The Joker is apparently a part of this group as well. Batman and The Joker seem to have some sort of uncomfortable truce while they confront whatever mega villain has destroyed the world, that in the final seconds of the dream sequence appears to be an evil version of Superman.
It’s admittedly a cool scene and one that seems specifically designed to generate buzz online, but ultimately it might not mean anything. As of right now, there is no indication that Warner Bros. is interested in anything further in the Zack Snyder version of the DC universe. Until we’re told otherwise, we’re still supposed to assume that the theatrical cut of the movie is the one that’s being considered canon by all future DC movies. Snyder has said that as of right now, he has no plans to make any more DC movies. So this is a tease put on the movie for future Justice League movies that we’re never going to get?
The answer feels like a big maybe, but also maybe not. After all, why not promise something big like a post apocalypse Batman/Joker team up movie if you already know that you’re never going to be expected to make good on that promise? Snyder has stated in interviews that at least part of the inspiration of that scene is that this was his last DC movie and he didn’t want to leave without having put Batman and The Joker face to face at least once. Snyder has also always been a filmmaker that has put style and imagery as his primary concerns, so the ability to set up a tease for a future movie, and pretty much just get to film the cool part had to be too much of a treat to pass up.
But for the sake of argument, let’s take it on faith that this scene, along with the other moments that we saw in this movie as well as Batman v. Superman are intentionally building towards a grandiose Justice League movie that has been teased since the very beginning. Is there enough in the teases that we’ve gotten to see what the coherent storyline would be? Let’s break down what we know.
While Darkseid was present in this version of Justice League, it’s clear that Steppenwolf was always intended to be the primary villain of the movie. Darkseid, like Thanos, was clearly envisioned as a villain meant to span several Justice League team up movies. So let’s assume that Darkseid eventually does arrive on Earth, whether it’s in the next hypothetical Justice League movie or even the third one. In a few flashforwards we got to see that both Aquaman and Wonder Woman are killed in this Darkseid invasion. We also see Superman cradling the skeleton of someone and since all other Justice League members are still accounted for in the future timeline, it’s safe to assume that the skeleton would belong to Lois Lane.
In the Injustice series of comics (and video games), the death of Lois Lane causes Superman to essentially turn evil and take over the world. Now based on the themes explored in both Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman, a dictator Superman is clearly something that would appeal to Zack Snyder, and I could see him very much wanting to explore the idea. However, to give him the benefit of the doubt, and to have a Superman that is still a redeemable character by the end of the franchise, let’s introduce The Anti-Life Equation.
For those of you who didn’t run to google to figure out what Steppenwolf was talking about when he told Darkseid that he had found the The Anti-Life Equation on earth, it’s a supernatural mathematical equation that mathematically proves that life is futile, and things like hope and goodness, mathematically can’t exist. The Anti-Life Equation dooms all those who are exposed to it to a life of unspeakable despair, and it is Darkseid’s goal to obtain the formula as it can be used to control any other sentient life form. (Yes, this is a very comicbooky sounding concept and it’s wild that the idea was ever put into a movie that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.)
So, if we’ve established that the Anti-Life Equation is on earth, and Darkseid is looking for it, let’s assume that he uses the moment of Lois Lane’s death to expose Superman to the Anti-Life equation, thus bringing Superman under his control. This would be the scene we see where Darkseid put his hand on Superman’s shoulder in Cyborg’s vision of the future. This also gives us motivation for the scene from Batman v. Superman where a version of Flash from the future is trying to get back to the past to tell Batman that Lois Lane is the key to saving the world. A dead Lois allows a moment of weakness for Superman to become the puppet of the supervillain that remakes the whole world into a post apocalyptic nightmare.
So where does the Joker come in? Again, this may have just been Zack Snyder wanting to get to direct a Batman and Joker scene before stepping away from the DC universe forever, but assuming that this was always part of the story, it’s possible that the Joker could be a key point in saving the world from Darkseid. You see, Darkseid’s main weapon for taking over the world in this scenario is being about convincing people that life is nonstop despair, pointless, and hopeless using math and logic. And logic is not something that works on The Joker. So while the remaining members of the Justice League (and Deathstroke) need to be wary of being exposed to the Anti-Life Equation, The Joker might be the one person in the DC universe who would be immune to its power.
Add to this that Zack Snyder’s Justice League has already established that The Flash can undo disasters by traveling back in time and is one of the surviving Justice League members in the future sequences, and it’s possible that the chess pieces have been moving into place this whole time to try and tell a grim future apocalypse Justice League story.
Then again, Snyder might have just thought it was cool to shoot one more scene in the Knightmare future he set up in Batman v. Superman. I guess we’ll never really know unless Zack Snyder’s Justice League 2 becomes a thing.
