Vero Post
On 8 August 2020, Zack Snyder unveiled the first look of his original Steppenwolf design in a low res image on Vero.
Differences Between Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Joss Whedon’s Theatrical Cut
This low res first look alone makes it clear how different Steppenwolf will be in Zack Snyder’s Justice League compared to Joss Whedon’s theatrical cut. Steppenwolf is an entirely different beast here: spiky and a lot more intimidating. This Steppenwolf seems ready to take on the entire Justice League. Fans can also look forward to more of Ciarán Hinds voicing Steppenwolf in ZSJL. Hinds sounded distinctly scarier in the first trailer than in the theatrical cut so that is another thing to be excited about.
The particular scene that Snyder has posted is the scene in Themyscira. In the theatrical cut, Steppenwolf lands to capture a Mother Box and has to take on the Amazonians. This scene takes place around the 20 minute mark in the theatrical cut whereas here the left hand corner appears to indicate that the scene will take place around the 1 hour mark in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The upcoming HBO Max project will of course be an entirely new thing but the most noticeable change is the runtime as ZSJL is said to be around 4 hours long. It is still uncertain whether it will be a film or a series.
Steppenwolf is set to play a major part in Zack Snyder’s Justice League as the main antagonist. This new design additionally makes him consistent with the other designs for the New Gods on Apokolips. In Snyder’s film, Steppenwolf will be doing the bidding of his nephew, Darkseid (played by Ray Porter). Darkseid is a cosmic warlord who wants to take over the Universe and his nephew is helping him do just that. Fans got a glimpse of Darkseid in the teaser that Snyder previously released.
Batman v Superman Connection
This Steppenwolf design can be seen in Batman v Superman: Ultimate Edition. The Communion scene above shows Lex Luthor communicating with Steppenwolf via hologram. The design that Snyder just unveiled also closely mirrors concept art for Justice League as seen below. After the reaction to Batman v Superman, Justice League underwent major changes as part of Warner Bros’s effort to save the project. And we all know how that turned out. Steppenwolf’s design was most likely changed to make him look less scary. Fortunately for Zack Snyder fans, now Snyder has the chance to do the film his way without compromises and this includes restoring Steppenwolf to his original design.
More than just this design, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is set to be a proper sequel to BvS both in terms of tone and story. One interesting piece of connective tissue between the two is Snyder’s past revelation that Superman’s cry during his death in BvS woke up the Mother Boxes. These are Snyder’s takes on the characters and it is important that with Justice League, he is able to continue what he started.
DC Fandome Clip
Snyder’s caption and answers to questions on Vero seem to indicate that we might see more of Steppenwolf, potentially even in high resolution, at DC Fandome. Snyder is set to unveil a clip of his Justice League at the event and stated that it would “blow your mind”.
I will be covering updates on Zack Snyder’s Justice League as they come out. DC Fandome is on the horizon and any DC fan should be excited for all the news on upcoming projects that we will receive there.