As most DC fans know, director Zack Snyder once had grand plans for his big-screen Superman saga starring Henry Cavill. Snyder designed Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League as just the start of something. For well-documented reasons, all of those plans got derailed. Now, the DC universe on screen is rebooting. But while promoting his newest Rebel Moon film, Zack Snyder opened up about his plans for Kal-El had he continued. Here’s what he had to say while speaking with GQ, via Collider:
He was going to have to succumb to the Anti-life, be destroyed, turn the clock back, and then get his chance for this battle against Darkseid. If you will… that would have finished his trilogy of becoming this guardian, and sort of, return him to his humanity.
The “Anti-Life” of which Snyder speaks is the Anti-Life Equation, a formula dreamed up by the late, great Jack Kirby for DC Comics in the ’70s. This formula sapped all living things of their will, and finding it was the villain Darkseid’s singular obsession. Superman would have succumbed to Anti-Life in the films, becoming a puppet of the Lord of Apokolips. So it makes sense that it would factor into Snyder’s ultimate plans, if Darkseid was going to be the final “Big Bad” of the saga. It also means Snyder would have probably shown a giant Darkseid vs. Superman brawl before it was all said and done.
Will Superman vs. Darkseid ever be a thing in live-action films now? Who knows. James Gunn is a huge classic DC fan, and he might have his own ideas for the Jack Kirby New Gods characters. We’ll have to wait and see as his plans for the new DCU continue to unfold. We certainly wouldn’t mind a New Gods series in the style of Game of Thrones. The possibilities with those characters, and their relationship to Superman, would provide fodder for endless stories.
