The Knightmare future seen in Zack Snyder's five-movie plan, and we now know a great deal about what Snyder had envisioned for this aspect of the DCEU. Since the theatrical debut of Justice League in 2017, Snyder has been more and more open about where the movie's theatrical cut parted ways with his original version. Snyder would also take it upon himself to put an end to the debate around his cut's existence by posting an image of film canisters holding it to social media this past December.
Among the more recent developments of the Snyder Cut campaign, Zack Snyder would also provide a Batman v Superman through a Vero live-stream. This, along with an earlier director's cut event in March 2019, would see Snyder revealing new information about the making of the movie, with both offering details regarding the Knightmare seen in Batman v Superman. While presenting nuggets of information about the sequence's place within the movie itself, Snyder would also make notable reveals about how he intended to pay it off in Justice League and beyond.
With the Knightmare having been completely abandoned in Justice League's theatrical cut, it s a now-mountainous accumulation of details about just how much of a 180 the film's massive reshoots made from Snyder's version, on top of an entire movie's worth of deleted characters and other excised story points. As a result of Snyder's public comments, there's now far more context about the Knightmare's role in his planned five-movie arc.
Darkseid Invades Earth
The most readily apparent element of the Knightmare future was that Darkseid had invaded and conquered Earth. This is made clear by Omega symbol burned into the desert floor seen in Batman v Superman. However, this also ties into story points that are now known about in Zack Snyder's Justice League.
The theatrical version of Justice League's history lesson shows Steppenwolf leading the invasion, while Snyder's version of this sequence featured battle between Darkseid and Ares before the forces of Apokolips were driven away. With the Knightmare elements of Batman v Superman and what Snyder had planned to incorporate into Justice League, this would have established Darkseid had made a second, much more successful attempt at invading Earth.
Superman Succumbs To The Anti-Life Equation After Darkseid Kills Lois Lane
The Knightmare sequence in Batman v Superman would also allude to the Man of Steel blaming Batman for an off-screen tragedy involving Lois with the line "She was my world, and you took her from me." The first peek behind the curtain to what exactly this meant came during Snyder's director's cut event, where he explained Justice League was originally to involve Darkseid murdering Lois in the Batcave. Following Batman v Superman's divisive reception, this became "the scary idea" that Warner Bros. balked at, leading Snyder and Chris Terrio to excise it from the movie in a script rewrite.
Snyder has explained the idea of Lois' death as Superman's breaking point, allowing him to fall victim to Darkseid's Anti-Life Equation and forces with Apokolips. He would also touch upon this further in his director's commentary, explaining Superman's line to Batman about Lois in the Knightmare is a reference his line to Lois later in the movie, "You are my world" before his death in the battle with Doomsday. While the two lines obviously echo each other, the details revealed by Snyder put the link between them into greater context.
Humans Are Being Turned Into Parademons (Except Superman's Stormtroopers)
Darkseid's Parademon army also appears during the Knightmare, obviously to set up their more significant role in Justice League. However, the sequence also sees Batman battling human adversaries bearing Superman patches on their uniforms and bowing down to the Man of Steel upon his arrival. Despite many humans being turned into Parademons, some were also being kept human "to infiltrate the human resistance", as Snyder put it during his director's commentary.
This exact kind of infiltration is seen at work in the Knightmare, when Batman is tricked into thinking he's receiving a shipment of Kryptonite, only for numerous human resistance fighters to suddenly reveal their loyalty to Superman. Snyder previously explained a more detailed look at this was also dubbed "too scary."
Batman Leads The Resistance Against Darkseid
As presented in Batman v Superman, the Knightmare takes the perspective of Bruce Wayne, showing him having made an arrangement to uncover Kryptonite to put a stop to Superman before the plan is foiled by Superman's stormtroopers. As Snyder explained at the 2019 event, "there was a few of the Justice League that had survived to that world," specifically Batman, The Flash, and Cyborg, who had been broken in half. Batman would then lead the battle against the invasion from Apokolips.
What isn't fully confirmed is what became of the rest of the Justice League between Lois' death and Superman's fall to the Anti-Life Equation. The absence of Aquaman and Wonder Woman points to both of them being killed at some point in between. Meanwhile, General Swanwick as the latter's human form late last year. Without seeing the Knightmare's role in the Snyder Cut, where they fit into the movie is open to speculation, but with the Knightmare seen in Batman v Superman and Snyder's description of Batman, The Flash, and Cyborg as the last remnants of the Justice League, it seems likely that Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter were also killed sometime after Darkseid's initial invasion.
Batman Builds Flash A Cosmic Treill In The Batcave
Snyder has also explained how the League set out to undo the Knightmare future, with Batman devising a plan to send The Flash back in time on the cosmic treill to warn his past self of the coming invasion. This element was already partially explored immediately following the Knightmare in Batman v Superman with Barry appearing out of the Speed Force in the Batcave before Bruce, telling him that Lois Lane is "the key." Realizing that he's gone too far back into the past, Barry then tells Bruce "You've always been right about him. Fear him!" while onishing him that "You have to find us!"
The Justice League "Heroes" trailer shows Batman beginning to put this message together by realizing that this warning referred to "something darker" in an obvious reference to Darkseid, though this also absent from the theatrical cut. However, Snyder has also revealed there were even more intricacies to the Knightmare than previously suspected. One of his biggest revelations in this regard has been in the details of Barry's journey back through time.
How Zack Snyder's Knightmare Time Travel Works
Snyder has also spoken about the actual science behind Barry's time-travel mission, explaining that Batman's plan was to send The Flash back in time to as close a proximity as possible to Lois' death, in order for his past self to grasp the warning as best as possible. However, the physics of time-travel being set up required the Earth to be in approximately the same position in the universe as the intended destination in the past, otherwise Flash would likely appear in the wrong location, or worse, in the void of space. Once Cyborg calculates everything, the three heroes were then presented with two possible windows for Barry to travel through, with Barry's "too soon" scene in the Batcave in Batman v Superman showing his first choice.
As Snyder explained on the commentary, the Knightmare future would then be revisited, with Cyborg (Barry traveling back in time to give the League another chance at victory after they had been defeated by Steppenwolf.
Batman Sacrifices Himself To Save Lois
Details are less clear on what Snyder had envisioned for the next two films of his planned five-movie arc. However, one thing that has been confirmed by Snyder himself is that the culmination of Ben Affleck's role in the DCEU was for Batman to sacrifice his life to save Lois. How exactly this would have played out hasn't been fully detailed beyond Snyder matter-of-factly confirming Batman was indeed going to die, but Final Crisis looks to have been a significant influence on the story Snyder had in mind.
The Grant Morrison penned story-arc depicts Batman being killed by one of Darkseid's Omega beams, with the shot of Superman carrying Batman's body in his arms being the image most closely associated with the story. League gathered around Clark and Lois with their newborn son, named Bruce in honor of Batman, as being "scary close".
Two years and counting from the theatrical release of Justice League, more details than ever before are now known about Snyder's original plan for Justice League and the rest of his five-part story. At this point, the theatrical version has been all but completely outstripped by the demand for the Justice League Snyder Cut with even Honest Trailers adding their two cents for the unreleased superhero ensemble. On top of that, the world now has a relatively good picture of where Snyder was taking Batman v Superman's Knightmare reality between his public comments and social media activity - though if the latter and the movie's 214-minute run time are proof of anything, it's that there's probably more still to be revealed about this aspect of Snyder's film.
