Major spoilers for Zack Snyder's Justice League follow.
Zack Snyder has previously stated that his director's cut of Justice League ends on a cliffhanger, but if you've seen the movie, you'll know that not exactly accurate. We do get a flash-forward of the "Nightmare" future in the epilogue, but that turns out to be Bruce Wayne's dream/premonition. The Dark Knight is then confronted by Martian Manhunter, who implies that he's ready and willing to join the team.
This does set up a sequel, but Snyder has already made it clear that we're unlikely to see a follow-up - at least not in movie form.
So, why include this sequence at all?
"Frankly, the reason I did that was because the ask was for like the purest version of the movie, and so, that’s what I was planning," the director explains to Deadline. "All those years ago, was this epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. Starting with this movie, I wanted to be true to the sort of structure that we were creating and sort of the look that we had been creating. Even if there’s never another movie, it just felt like in-genre and in the tone to really have this kind of bigger sort of cliffhanger look at the very end. It just made sense to me."
ZSJL received a (mostly) positive reception from critics and is expected to do very well on HBO Max. If it turns out to be a major success, what are the chances of Snyder returning for more DC-based projects?
"Warner Bros. hasn’t really expressed any interest in making more movies with me, and that’s 100% fine. I understand," Snyder reveals. "...There are comic books I love, you know?," he adds when asked if there are any comic book adaptations he'd consider a dream project. "I’ve always wanted to do Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns and a couple others, but I don’t know. I’m just, I’m pretty happy with just kind of working, the movie that we just finished, but I don’t really have like a burning desire to make another comic book movie, I’ll say."
We all know how quickly things can change, but for now, it looks like the "Snyder Cut" of Justice League might be the last we see of the director's vision for these iconic characters for a while.