Ever since DC Studios’ co-head James Gunn announced his original slate for his DCU titled “Gods and Monsters,” fans have been wondering who the ultimate overarching main villain will be. Well, Gunn has now confirmed who it won’t be, which will likely disappoint some DC Comics fans. While speaking to Screen Crush and New Rockstars (via Comic Book Movie), Gunn confirmed that Darkseid, DC’s greatest villain and Lord of Apokolips, won’t be the “Big Bad.” And it’s partially because of the Marvel villain, who was designed to be just like Darkseid, Thanos. Here’s what he had to say:
There are aspects of Darkseid in Thanos, in that they’re obviously very similar. They look very similar. Because of that, to give you probably more than an answer than you probably expected, using Darkseid as the big bad right now is not necessarily the thing for a lot of reasons. Zack [Snyder] did it so cool in his way, and then there’s Thanos and Marvel.
In short, Darkseid is so similar to Thanos, that Gunn knows casual audiences will view Darkseid as a Thanos ripoff, even if comic fans know it was the other way around. But just because he’s not the main villain doesn’t mean he won’t appear ever. Gunn also stated “It’s the New Gods in general that are, to me, interesting. We’re dealing [with that] in Mister Miracle.” He’s referring to the upcoming Mister Miracle animated series, which will feature Darkseid and the rest of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World characters.
If the new Mister Miracle show is indeed DCU canon, it means the ruler of Apokolips will exist there. And maybe expand into an eventual live-action New Gods movie or streaming series. There’s almost no way Darkseid doesn’t exist at all in the DCU. However, we think Gunn is right not to make him the primary villain of the franchise. Hopefully, one day, we get a proper DCU Darkseid. He deserves more than two minutes of screentime in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.