Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's "Knightmare" sequence has been confusing fans for the past four years, but director Zack Snyder has now shared some details about how the Flash's trip back in time was meant to create a new timeline Justice League 2 was set to explore.
Based on what the filmmaker says here, it would have been a tad convoluted, but a necessity after the Man of Steel had succumbed to the effects of Darkseid's Anti-Life Equation.
"I had this idea that in the future when [the Justice League] are talking about sending Flash back to warn [Bruce Wayne], that Cyborg would be doing the calculations to send him back and would say 'I have two possibilities of where to send Flash back in time."
"The numbers point to two moments to warn you [Bruce].' Like, if it's right near the moment when this event might happen - where Lois might get killed, or Bruce isn't able to stop it, however that's happening - it would be important if Flash came closer to that moment so that Bruce could understand the reality of it," the director continued.
"And so in the future Bruce says to Cyborg 'Well, what times would you send me back to...What time right now would you send me back?' And Cyborg says 'I'm leaning toward this.' And Bruce says 'Do the other one, because you already sent him back here and it was too early - so send me to the other one.' So that's how he's able to get [the Flash] back again."
In other words, a new timeline would have been created which saw the Flash warn Superman about Lois Lane's demise, something he would have understood at that point, thereby helping that Batman stop this desolate future from becoming a reality. Or, as Snyder puts it, "in the new timeline he goes to a different point in time that's closer to the event that we haven't seen yet in this film."
This is perhaps the most in-depth explanation we've had about Snyder's Justice League 2 plans, and it's clear the filmmaker had ambitious plans for his sequel. Regardless of what happens with the Snyder Cut, we'll never get to see this follow-up, so his plans for the DC Extended Universe are never actually going to become a reality on the big screen.
What do you guys think about these new details about the unfilmed sequel?