Snyder’s cut of 2017’s Justice League has finally landed on HBO Max with four years of fan anticipation behind it, but the film was never meant to be standalone and was supposed to be the first in a Justice League trilogy. Justice League 2 would have featured the team facing off against the Legion of Doom, ending on a note where Darkseid kills Lois Lane and Superman succumbs to the Anti-Life equation, setting up the Knightmare future teased in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The third film would have seen an invasion by the New Gods and taken place in the Knightmare future. Snyder has even revealed that the third film would end with Batman dying, but now fans know there would have been another Batman.
The long-awaited director’s cut of the 2017 film finally hit HBO Max this past week and fans have been combing through the movie to catch any hidden Easter eggs or references they might have missed. Eagle-eyed viewers ended up spotting one thing towards the end of the film that raised plenty of eyebrows. During the Justice League epilogue, a pregnancy test can be seen in Lois Lane’s apartment. Clark Kent and Lois Lane already have a vast history of onscreen children in the 21st century alone. The 2006 film Superman Returns featured the pair, played by Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth, as they grappled with parenthood and the notion that their son could have inherited some of the Kryptonian’s powers.
In an interview with Esquire, Snyder was asked about the appearance of a pregnancy test and whether or not it meant what audiences think it meant. Snyder confirmed, “She’s definitely pregnant.” However, the director did not elaborate further. What this could mean for the future of the DCEU is unclear. While both Snyder and Warner Bros. have made it clear that the 2017 version of Justice League is considered canon by the studio, it seems anything is possible.
Not only do DCEU directors like Patty Jenkins consider Snyder’s version canon, but there have also been rumblings that the studio could be rethinking their previous statements after what looks to be a huge turnout for Zack Snyder’s Justice League. With The Flash having the potential to make the Snyder Cut canon, it seems this storyline could be incorporated into future DCEU films.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Zack Snyder revealed the plan was for the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane to take on the mantle of the Batman. The child’s name would be Bruce Kent and he would not have any of his father’s powers. The scene would take place in a flash-forward, years on in the future when Clark and Lois take their son to a familiar location and ask him to take on the mantle of the Dark Knight. Snyder said,
“It was going to be Lois and Superman’s son…Twenty years later, on the anniversary of [Batman’s] death, they take young Bruce Kent down to the Batcave and they say, ‘Your Uncle Bruce would’ve been proud if you did this.'”
Henry Cavill’s future as Superman is just as up in the air as Snyder’s plans for the franchise, so it’s truly anyone’s guess as to whether or not Lois and Superman’s unseen child will play a role in future films. Still, it’s a nice note to end on for the couple if Snyder’s story doesn’t continue. The ending that Snyder envisioned strikes a similar note to the end of The Dark Knight Rises. It finds Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character Robin John Blake discovering the Batcave after Bruce Wayne has left Gotham City. So it means that the ending will be that Blake will become the new protector of Gotham City and that Batman is a symbol that will outlive any one man.
Speaking with Vanity Fair in light of the nearing release of the new Justice League on HBO Max, Snyder revealed that he initially planned to have Bruce Wayne fall in love with Lois on the heels of Superman’s demise in Batman V Superman. Knowing full well that resurrecting Clark Kent was the only way to save the world, Batman was conflicted; in the end, he decided to let go of his feelings to save humanity. He said,
“The intention was that Bruce fell in love with Lois and then realized that the only way to save the world was to bring Superman back to life. So he had this insane conflict, because Lois, of course, was still in love with Superman. We had this beautiful speech where [Bruce] said to Alfred: ‘I never had a life outside the cave. I never imagined a world for me beyond this. But this woman makes me think that if I can get this group of gods together, then my job is done. I can quit. I can stop.’ And of course, that doesn’t work out for him.”
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