Zack Snyder Says Justice League Trilogy Was Meant To Be Like Lord of the Rings

As Zack Snyder's Justice League moves closer to its long-awaited release, more details are continuing to pour in regarding the director's intentions for the DC universe. Before the director was forced to depart Justice League in 2017, Snyder had huge plans for the future of DC movies through a multi-part saga for the Justice League.

This month, fans will get a peek at the world that could have been in Snyder's cut of the film. However, with no return to the DCEU in sight, this seems to be where the former director's superhero saga comes to an end as the film is expected to close on a cliffhanger.

In the marketing for the film, Snyder continues to detail the future that will never be as he compares his plans to the Lord of the Rings franchise...

ZACK SNYDER'S LORD OF THE RINGS

In an exclusive interview with Total Film, Justice League director Zack Snyder shared details of his intended direction for the DC universe. The director revealed that while multiple directors “made their own movies” for the interconnected DC Extended Universe, he was determined to “stay the course” with Justice League to pursue his direction:

“In a lot of ways, I view this movie on its own. I love [Wonder Woman director] Patty [Jenkins] and I think she's done an amazing job, and [The Suicide Squad director] James [Gunn] has done a great job — they've made their own movies. But I just thought, 'I’m gonna stay the course that I thought was cool.' There's a bunch of stuff I do differently than what they do, but I just think of Justice League as its own thing at this point. It exists kind of on its own.”

The former DC filmmaker went on to describe the “trilogy of films” with a “consistent tone” that he chose to focus on when crafting the future team-ups — being Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, and Justice League.  

Snyder described the intention to use the trilogy as a setup for two further Justice League sequels which “stays true to that concept,” but, unfortunately, the director doesn't “see that happening” anymore. The format of the saga would've been “like Lord of the Rings and not a one-off,” he described:

“For me, there's a trilogy of films that I sort of lean on. Man Of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League are a continuity, and within that three-movie arc there is a consistent tone. Frankly, it was meant as the primer for another two [Justice League] movies — not that those movies are ever going to get photographed, I don't see that happening — and it stays true to that concept. It was meant to be like Lord Of The Rings and not a one-off. That's the way I think about it.”

WHAT DOES ZACK SNYDER MEAN BY THIS?

What exactly the director meant in these comments is unclear. However, the Lord of the Rings franchise is known for being a large-scale trilogy of films that come together to form a cohesive story — almost like one long film.

The extended cuts of Peter Jackson's iconic fantasy franchise are renowned for their extreme length, something fans are now experiencing with the Snyder cut. In many ways, elements of the beginning of the Lord of the Rings saga set up its ending. Both Batman V Superman and Zack Snyder's Justice League will have featured visions of a Knightmare future, something the sequels were intended to explore further. 

Snyder's comments highlight the differences between the DCEU and the MCU, suggesting his universe was never intended to follow the same concept. It seems the Justice League director wanted to allow other directors to tell their own story while he largely followed his own superhero epic across his own films.

Zack Snyder's Justice League will release exclusively on HBO Max on March 18 — with worldwide release plans to be confirmed.