10 DC Movie Easter Eggs And Setups That Led Nowhere

At the end of Batman V Superman, Jesse Eisenberg's incarcerated Lex Luthor tells Batman that "the bell cannot be unrung", which is his cryptic way of telling the Caped Crusader that he's summoned the evil Steppenwolf to Earth.

A deleted scene featuring the Apokalyptian adds further meat to the bones of this plotline, but when the cinematic cut of Justice League arrived it cinemas, it was as good as abandoned. Not only are there no references to the two villains working together, Luthor was cut from the team-up film almost entirely.

Lex's motivation for bringing Steppenwolf to Earth is never fleshed out. No doubt he hoped the alien warlord would wipe out the 'Red Capes', but surely he realised there would be some unpleasant consequences for himself and the rest of humanity if an all-powerful invader came to our planet with an army of flying demons in tow.

What's more, it's never established why Steppenwolf needed Luthor. He had his own reasons to travel to Earth (to retrieve the Mother Boxes) and clearly knew how to get there without Lex's coordinates, having attempted to invade the planet before.

Somewhere out there, there's a Zack Snyder cut of Justice League that might never see the light of day. In this version, Luthor's connection to Steppenwolf is probably treated like more than a dangling plot thread.