DC Films and Warner Bros. are taking a hiatus from releases similarly to the way Marvel Studios is doing, slowly building up anticipation for James Gunn's The Suicide Squad. In the non-canon portion of this universe, HBO Max is still hosting Zack Snyder's Justice League, one of the streaming service's most successful releases to date.
Over the weeks following this debut, Snyder and his team have shared multiple behind-the-scenes looks into this four-hour extravaganza, showcasing VFX progress and alternate images of central characters. Some of these looks showcase a helmet-less Darkseid while others gave the heroic side some love with a design for Kilowog of the Green Lantern Corps.
This trend continues with another one from the film's concept artist, who took it back to the dark side with a creepy look at one of Darkseid's minions/Justice League villains.
EARLY DESIGNS FOR DESAAD
Zack Snyder's Justice League concept artist Jerad Marantz shared two images on Instagram featuring DeSaad, one of the film's key villains. Both images showcase designs of the character that are considerably scarier than the version of DeSaad that fans saw in the Snyder Cut:
DeSaad evolved from this image to his final design in the movie, with the initial design showing him with glowing gray eyes and a noticeable lack of a nose. Perhaps the team wanted to go a little less Voldemort than originally planned?
Marantz included a wider framed image of DeSaad with his full costume, which looks quite similar to his wardrobe in the final edition of the Snyder Cut.
Marantz's caption made mention of the fact that the design's "scary" were the likely causes for it needing to be revised:
"Here’s an early pass I did on Desaad for Zack Snyder's Justice League. My favorite versions of the character in the comics were always the most gruesome. Believe it or not this version went over pretty well, but of course, I had to revisit the character when I’m assuming they thought it was too scary. I had incredible time on this project with so many talented artists and working with costume designer Michael Wilkinson. It was such a joy and privilege to work on these characters."
The full Instagram post can be seen below:
DESAAD, I CALL TO THEE!
Zack Snyder was open about wanting to bring designs to the movie that were much scarier than anything Warner Bros. wanted in the 2017 cut. This was specifically mentioned with Steppenwolf, and it obviously continued through the entire team of villains, DeSaad included.
DeSaad was a character who didn't find his way into the original Justice League due to its shortened run time, although he made an impact as Darkseid's primary contact through Steppenwolf.
This also isn't the first design fans have seen for DeSaad, with the last one from late March looking even creepier than this one. It seems that no matter how the final design for the villain ended up, it was guaranteed to bring chills every time he showed his scaly face on screen.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is available to stream on HBO Max.
