Movie fans were given a shock when it was announced that Zack Snyder was stepping down as the director of Justice League, and that Joss Whedon would see the movie through scheduled reshoots. These reshoots have so far included tweaking certain characters and lightening the mood, but they might be a little more extensive than that. A new report from Peter Sciretta from /Film is claiming that Joss Whedon is changing the ending of Justice League and is trying to beef up the character of Steppenwolf.
The original ending of the movie, from what I understand, [Steppenwolf] was kind of playing the Silver Surfer role and Darkseid playing kind of the Galactus role, and the ending of the movie was a cliffhanger, and Justice League 2 was going to be Justice League vs. Darkseid. Darkseid arrives at Earth. This kind of down, dirty ending, and from what I understand, that has been completely removed. The ending ends the movie like a movie, it doesn't leave a huge cliffhanger now.
Originally, Justice League was announced as part one of a two part story, with DC villain Darkseid being set up as the main antagonist of Part Two. However, a lot has changed for the DCEU since then, as Warner Bros. is pivoting the tone and direction of its cinematic universe in the wake of the poor reception to its earlier films. Now it sounds like Justice League is following suit, as Darkseid is being held back (assumably for later down the line) and the movie will abandon a cliffhanger ending. This actually tracks with Joss Whedon's sensibilities, as he once said he didn't like the ending of Empire Strikes Back because it wasn't an ending and was just table setting for the next one.
This seems okay. It isn't that Justice League is in shambles or anything, they are just changing the direction they want to go in for the rest of DCEU. I would rather have a complete ending than a Desolation of Smaug scenario where you basically have to wait two years to see the real ending.
If Darkseid is now pushed to the background, then that means Steppenwolf is going to need some tinkering as well. Doesn't do much good to have the main villain be set up for a bigger villain who isn't coming anymore. Peter Sciretta's source says that reshoots are being done with Robin Wright (General Antiope) in order to make Steppenwolf a bigger threat.
They did a reshoot with Robin Wright from Wonder Woman, and that's gonna be to set up a flashback explaining who Steppenwolf is, and Steppenwolf is now the big bad of this movie. Whereas Darkseid was this looming threat, that won't now come, I don't think.
Fans may have to wait longer to see Darkseid make his live action debut. It sounds like he may be getting shelved for now, which may be a good thing. For such a major villain, it felt too soon for him to show up. This way they can build toward him while they work out whatever kinks they see in the DCEU.
Justice League is set to hit theaters on November 17, 2017. To learn more about the film, here's everything we know so far.
