How The Snyder Cut's Knightmare Scene Hints At Aquaman's Fate
When compared with its theatrical release, there are a lot of new and altered scenes in the Snyder Cut of Justice League — that's no surprise, considering the whopping four-hour runtime. But there's probably nothing more different than the ending. We get a little more Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) and Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello), Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) has a conversation with Martian Manhunter (Harry Lennix), and, of course, we witness the surprising return of Jared Leto's incarnation of the Joker.
Joker notwithstanding, the biggest part of the end of Zack Snyder's Justice League is that it reintroduces the grim potential future we first saw in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But whereas what we originally saw of the Knightmare visions consisted of Batman sluggishly fighting off a horde of Parademons, this new Justice League ending offers a lot more.
The Knightmare future is one where not only has Darkseid seized control of the Earth, but done it with the aid of Superman (Henry Cavill) under the control of the anti-life equation. There's a lot tucked away into that sequence, one of which is a hint at the fate of Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) aka Aquaman in a Knightmare-focused Justice League 2.
The Legion of Doom, Knightmare, and the Cosmic Treadmill
The last we see of Arthur Curry in Justice League, he's hopping on the back of a truck to visit his father — a moment that still happens to lead perfectly into the Aquaman movie.
However, according to a collection of whiteboards from a recent AT&T exhibit, the original Justice League sequel plan was for Arthur and Mera to team up to unite the seven underwater kingdoms — only for them to get sideswiped by Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom. Luthor would use Orm (Patrick Wilson) and Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to take on Atlantis, which would lead to the death of Arthur.
Arthur's death would coincide with Darkseid's eventual invasion of Earth. When we see Mera (Amber Heard) along with Batman, Cyborg (Ray Fisher) The Flash (Ezra Miller), Deathstroke, and Joker in the Snyder Cut's Knightmare scene, she refers to getting revenge for Arthur's death at the hands of Orm and Manta.
Of course, Barry Allen still being a part of the team would take the journey on an atemporal path where the team would craft the Cosmic Treadmill, rewrite history, save Arthur, and therefore give the Justice League a fighting chance by the time Justice League 3 rolls around.