Zack Snyder Explains What Happens Next After Batman and Joker Team Up in JUSTICE LEAGUE
The Knightmare ending of Zack Snyder’s Justice League left Batman and Joker trapped in one seriously uncomfortable alliance, preparing to face a corrupted Superman in a world destroyed by Darkseid.
Fans have spent years wondering where that story was supposed to go, and Zack Snyder says the answer is already out there.
During a recent interview on the Preston & Steve Show, Snyder explained that he and his team mapped out the larger story they intended to tell across the planned Justice League sequels.
“We whiteboarded the entire three movie… three other movies that have yet to be seen,” Snyder said.
That larger plan would have continued directly from the Knightmare future teased at the end of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, with Batman and Joker temporarily putting aside their hatred for each other because they had a much bigger problem on their hands.
Snyder says fans interested in finding out how that alliance and the rest of his DC story would have played out can actually track down the plans themselves.
“If you do a little bit of research, you can see the entire what the vision was,” Snyder added.
He’s referring to storyboards created for the planned sequels, featuring artwork from legendary DC Comics artist Jim Lee. Photos of those Justice League 2 storyboards began circulating online in 2021, offering a detailed look at Snyder’s original roadmap for the characters.
The story would have taken the Knightmare scenario from a warning of things to come to the main conflict. Justice League 2 would have seen Darkseid invade Earth and Superman fall under his control, creating the apocalyptic future glimpsed throughout Snyder’s DC movies.
The Flash would eventually escape that nightmare timeline by traveling into the past to warn Batman, paying off the mysterious Flash appearance Bruce Wayne experienced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
From there, Justice League 3 would have brought the saga to its final confrontation with Darkseid. Batman would ultimately sacrifice himself, leading into Earth’s last stand against the ruler of Apokolips.
So, while Snyder’s Justice League sequels were never made, the filmmaker and his collaborators had already worked out where Batman, Joker, Superman, Darkseid and the rest of the League were headed.
That bizarre Batman and Joker partnership wasn’t simply an extra scene created to give fans a cool interaction between the characters. It was pointing toward the much larger Knightmare story Snyder intended to tell.
Snyder also touched on a couple of other projects during the conversation, including his upcoming Escape from New York reboot and those persistent rumors surrounding a possible adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns.
“I love the rumors… maybe if there’s enough rumors someone will make the movie,” Snyder said.
Considering Snyder’s longtime affection for Frank Miller’s Batman story, it’s easy to understand why he really wants to make that movie.
Snyder appeared on the show primarily to discuss The Last Photograph, his indie passion project premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13. Snyder served as both director and cinematographer on the film, shooting across Colombia, the Amazon, Iceland and Pasadena.
For fans still fascinated by Snyder’s abandoned DC plans, though, Batman and Joker’s truce was only one piece of an ambitious path toward Darkseid, Superman’s fall and Batman’s final sacrifice.
The movies may not exist, but Snyder the roadmap does, and you can check it out below.