Zack Snyder Explains Major Darkseid Plot Hole In Justice League

Zack Snyder's fans pulled off an impressive feat with regard to the director's 2017 film "Justice League." Though Joss Whedon took over as the director of the film in mid-production due to a tragedy in the Snyder family, many fans didn't cotton to the heavy changes that the "Avengers" filmmaker made to the tone, action, and dialog of the previous films in the DCEU trilogy.

What changed everything, of course, was endless social media campaigning from fans of Snyder's work. Eventually, Warner Bros. caved to fan demands, and the Snyder Cut of "Justice League" was released in 2021. Still, even if it was a marked improvement over the original 2017 version, that doesn't mean it was free of plot holes and continuity errors.

All the same, Snyder did have an answer when one fan pointed out a plot hole they noticed concerning the anti-life equation that Darkseid (Ray Porter) is seeking in "Zack Snyder's Justice League." A Vero user (via X) questioned why Darkseid forgets that Earth has defeated him and is now the home of the Mother Boxes and the key to the anti-life equation. "He almost died when he returned to [Apokolips]," Snyder said in response to the user. "He was in a fight for power, and much time passed before he was in a position of power again, and by then, all who had been with him had been slayed."

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For fans whose memories of the sprawling four-hour epic are a little fuzzy, Darkseid is backing the central villain of "Zack Snyder's Justice League," Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), in his attempt to gain the three Mother Boxes. While Steppenwolf is defeated by the Justice League and dies as a result, Darkseid remains vigilant about finding the anti-life equation and returning to Earth for revenge.

Had Snyder's DCEU continued, instead of being replaced by James Gunn and Peter Safran's DCU, Darkseid was set to emerge as the Thanos-level threat of the shared cinematic universe. Though we will likely never see how this story would have progressed had Snyder retained the reins of DC's official film universe, it is reassuring to read that the filmmaker had thought through even the most minute details of the plot, especially considering Darkseid has very little screen time in "Zack Snyder's Justice League."

Either way, fans can still retain hope that one of the biggest and most dangerous villains in DC Comics could return down the road. After all, Gunn and Safran have already produced deep dives like "Creature Commandos," so nothing seems to be off the table in the new DCU.

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