10 Scrapped Movie Scenes Better Than What We Got
10. Darkseid Arrives - Justice League
It's no secret that Justice League was a big 'ol mess, and honestly probably the most publicly sloppy Hollywood production of the last decade-or-so.
Its biggest issue above all else is the creative push-and-pull between so many disparate visions: on one hand there's Zack Snyder's dark, operatic spectacle, on the other there's Joss Whedon's broader, wittier approach, and somewhere in the middle is Warner Bros. desperately trying to figure out what audiences actually want to see.
One of the most surprising things about Justice League is how self-contained it ultimately ends up being.
After Batman v Superman was widely - and justifiably - pilloried for feeling like a coming attractions reel for future DCEU movies, Justice League barely makes any effort at all to set up a sequel, beyond bringing Superman (Henry Cavill) back into the fold and establishing the existence of the titular team.
Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) is defeated, we get a brief post-credits tease of Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) and Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) and...that's it.
And though Snyder's original vision for the film was likely messier than what we ended up with, it certainly didn't want for bold, viscerally intriguing ideas.
Above all else, the end of the film was supposed to have Steppenwolf attempt to lure Superman to his side with an extended vision of the "Knightmare" from Batman v Superman, giving audiences their first glimpse of the Thanos-like big bad Darkseid in the process.
Further still, Steppenwolf wouldn't be destroyed by his own Parademons, but upon arriving back at his home planet Apokolips would be murdered by Darkseid, and the cliffhanger ending would see the supervillain heading to Earth to fight the Justice League himself.
In the very least, this would've provided a compelling link back to the Knightmare sequence and actually given audiences something vaguely compelling to look forward to. Instead, it ended on a forgettable shoulder shrug.