The DC Extended Universe has gone through countless major changes to its slate even after kicking things off with Zack Snyder's Man of Steel in 2013, mostly reeling from such mixed reactions to the first few entries in the series. After Marvel Studios blew the door open on the concept of an interconnected comic book movie universe, DC decided to try their hand at the same formula by planning out five solo movies, a massive team-up movie in 2016 pitting Batman against Superman, and a two-part Justice League movie premiering in 2017 and 2019.
About halfway through these releases, the studio decided to make Justice League one movie while dropping the sequel indefinitely, and this was all before the controversial switch in directors from Zack Snyder to Joss Whedon. No details have come to light on what the Justice League sequel would have held in store for the DCEU, although one of the series' most vocal stars recently opened up on what he knows.
NEWS
In a new interview with Yahoo!, Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello revealed details on how plans changed on the post-credits scene of 2017's Justice League from teasing the formerly planned Batman movie to hinting at the Justice League sequel.
Manganiello detailed how Snyder made adjustments to Deathstroke's DCEU entrance, commenting on how the tease changed the potential outcome of the DCEU's future:
"They reshot all of Jesse’s dialogue to tease Justice League Part 2, which was going to be about the Injustice League...All of that dialogue was about Batman originally, and it was changed to lines like ‘Shouldn’t we have a league of our own?’”
WHAT THIS MEANS
If what Manganiello said is true, Warner Bros. certainly had some bold plans for where the DCEU was set to go after the events of 2017's Justice League. It's widely known that Darkseid was meant to be a key villain in one of Zack Snyder's two planned Justice League films, just as he will be in the Snyder Cut, and it would have been crazy to see how the powerful alien meshed with a potential Injustice League.
In terms of the Injustice League, this tease could have been the perfect lead-up to a possible Justice League sequel with Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor bringing Deathstroke into the fray for the first time. Slade Wilson was planned out as a possible long-term villain after he faced off against Bruce Wayne in the originally-planned Batman solo movie, but the reception to Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice firmly forced Warner Bros to go in a different direction.
These new plans are still mostly a mystery to everybody on the outside, but it's clear that the Justice League franchise is still a work in progress with a very fluid game plan going forward.
