Given that this page concerns outlines for unmade films, expect all spoilers for these hypothetical works and the trilogy that preceded it to be unmarked.
The tentatively-titled Justice League 2 was, at one point, the planned conclusion of Zack Snyder's Myth Arc for the DC Extended Universe. However, rather than serving as one film, it was agreed that two parts were necessary to tell the full story, allowing the Justice League franchise to have a hypothetical full trilogy with a Justice League 3 before having a reboot of the DCEU setting. The films revolved around with the Knightmare concept first teased in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before definitively ending the setting in a Grand Finale.
Two versions of the story exist. The first was detailed in an elaborate storyboard adapted and lettered by Geoff Johns from an outline by Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio, which was subsequently illustrated by Jim Lee. The second is made up of later revisions to the story that follow the same general plot, with a few key changes and a larger cast of characters, that have mostly been revealed to the public via Word of God. The former was showcased to the public as part of AT&T Discovery District's "The Dreamscape of Zack Snyder's Justice League" exhibit meant to promote the release of that film, while the latter only exists in the form of currently-unreleased storyboards that Snyder has made in his spare time. The original storyboards can be read here
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Both outlines also have different narrative structures. In the original draft, everything preceding the Knightmare was going to make up Part One of the story, whereas Part Two would cover the time travel plot and the subsequent events of the corrected timeline. The revised draft puts everything tied to the Knightmare, from the lead-up to its resolution via being phased out of existence by time travel, into Justice League 2, with Justice League 3 being devoted entirely to the Final Battle and epilogue. While some details on the revised outline remain unclear, one key change came in the form of an Executive Veto from Warner Bros. cutting out the romantic affair between Batman and Lois Lane in Justice League prior to Superman's resurrection — and, as such, Lois's son went from being Batman's child to Superman's child.
Years later, the corrupted Superman reigns over the barren wasteland that was once the Earth while Darkseid is off conquering an untold numbers of worlds. The surviving members of the Justice League, their allies, and their enemies prepare for a last-ditch effort to undo the unfathomable amount of damage that has been done to the world. The Justice League sets out on a suicide mission to capture a Mother Box, which will power the Cosmic Treadmill and send the Flash back long enough to send a warning to prevent this timeline from existing. The Justice League ends up being picked off one by one by a rampaging Superman, but the Flash is able to get the message back to Batman in the past before he disappears with the timeline he's successfully prevented.
Batman, with new knowledge from the Flash, then sacrifices his own life to save Lois from Darkseid, giving Superman just enough time to fight the tyrant back. Lois is able to inform Superman about the Legion of Doom's planned ambushes, sparing the lives of the Justice League and buying time before the invasion begins. Superman then rallies the armies of the Earth, while Wonder Woman and Aquaman become true leaders of their respective civilizations, and the Green Lantern Corps come from space in a massive, world-encompassing battle that culminates in the final defeat of the forces of Apokolips, as the world becomes a Justice League and the Age of Heroes returns once more.
After the battle, the Justice League serve as the leaders of this new world, and society progresses to a more perfect state as an era of world peace begins. The story has an epilogue set years later, where Superman and Lois' son, Bruce Jonathan Kent, becomes the next Batman, honoring the fallen Justice League member and ensuring that his legacy lives on.
Zack Snyder indicated that, despite his plan to only do five movies, he was open to the idea of being involved with a Flashpoint adaptation of sorts that would take additional elements from his movies and the others DCEU films and turn them on their head before leading into a full-blown reboot. However, it should be noted that Warner Bros. never officially gave him the greenlight for his sequel pitch, only approving the story up to Justice League — and following the intensely divisive reception to Batman v Superman and the film's subsequent box office underperformance, plans for two Justice League sequels following this template were put on the backburner as the franchise was planned to take a Lighter and Softer direction, with Snyder being encouraged to step down following the completion of Justice League — though he did so beforehand due to a family tragedy.
Despite the numerous changes that were made to the Justice League film that hit theaters, that version of the movie still left off on a note where a version of this story could have been told, with the formation of the Legion of Doom being explicitly teased in The Stinger and Darkseid being name-dropped briefly in the film itself. However, when the movie bombed at the box office, most of the existing plans for the DCEU franchise were stalled, and the people at DC Films worked on a more standalone-oriented approach that gradually featured more shared universe elements and crossovers over time, which itself was followed by an extensive overhaul by even newer management.
As it stands, any known details about the plans for the unmade Justice League sequels only exist in this outline format, or in interviews with the people involved with their development. And since Warner Bros. has shown no interest in making the proposed story into a feature film or some other other adaptation, the fans have once again put it upon themselves to bring the story to life.
A fanmade adaptation of the released storyboards, titled Project Justice League, has been animated as a motion-comic. While it keeps the general structure of the first version of the plot, it also features a bit of Adaptation Expansion to feature other DCEU characters and elements from the second version of the story. It can be viewed here.
Compare Justice League: Mortal, another cancelled Justice League of America adaptation.
The outlines for Justice League 2 contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: Project Justice League adds various DCEU characters to the story that weren't part of the original outline at the time, but various projects that were greenlit and filmed after the storyboards were made. This includes characters from Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, Katana, Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, Shazam, Bloodsport and King Shark, Black Adam, Doctor Fate, Hawkman, and Atom-Smasher, Supergirl, Batgirl, and Blue Beetle. Deathstroke also makes a cameo in a Knightmare scene that he otherwise didn't participate in. It also gives Martian Manhunter, who was only introduced in Zack Snyder's Justice League, prominence in the final battle instead of just having a cameo at the end of the outline, alongside making John Stewart a part of the Green Lantern cavalry at the end. The video also adds dialogue that was not present in the original outline.
- Adaptation Name Change: In the comics, Superman and Lois' son is named Jonathan Samuel Kent, after his adoptive father and her father respectively. In this movie, he would be named Bruce Jonathan Kent, after his father/late godfather and his adoptive father's father/biological father's adoptive father depending on the version of the story.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Bruce Kent was Batman's son in the original outline — being the result of a brief affair that Lois had with Batman during the months when Superman was believed to be dead — but he is explicitly identified as Superman's son in the revised outline.
- After the End: The Knightmare timeline is firmly set after the day that evil won.
- And the Adventure Continues: The final scene of the epilogue has Bruce Kent becoming the second Batman and preparing to patrol Gotham after the Justice League welcomes him into their ranks.
- Anyone Can Die: Most of the named cast dies in the Knightmare timeline, with a bulk of the casualties happening before it gets erased from existence, and pretty much everyone else dying to allow the time travel plan to work.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The Legion of Doom and Darkseid's forces. In the original draft, the Legion's members included Lex Luthor, the Riddler, Doctor Poison, Ocean Master, Black Manta, and Captain Cold, and Darkseid and DeSaad were the only evil New Gods listed as being part of the invasion. In the revised draft, the Legion's members aren't clear beyond Lex Luthor and presumably Deathstroke and Joker (with Snyder indicating that there were other changes to the supervillain roster), but Darkseid and DeSaad were joined by at least Granny Goodness and Grail.
- Dead Guy Junior: Bruce Jonathan Kent is named after both Bruce Wayne and Jonathan Kent.
- Despair Event Horizon: In the Knightmare timeline, Superman seeing the charred corpse of Lois and her unborn child completely breaks him, leading to Darkseid using the Anti-Life Equation on him and turning the superhero into his slave.
- Distant Finale: About twenty years after the War for Earth, a now grown-up Bruce Kent takes up his late namesake's legacy and becomes Batman.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: For Batman and Superman, in different ways.
- While Batman dies, he does so knowing that he prevented a horrific apocalyptic disaster from occurring and the world he's leaving behind is a world united in peace and protected by the group of heroes he helped to bring together.
- Superman, after all the trials and tribulations he's faced, is able to not only stop the ultimate evil from destroying his home and family (and using him as its pawn), but also makes Earth a better world than Krypton like Jor-El and Lara had hoped he could. Also, he and Lois have Babies Ever After.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Green Lantern is this, given that he has less of a narrative emphasis than the other members of the team, and in the original draft, he was outright a Last Episode, New Character. Various side characters in the revised draft fulfill this role as well.
- Grand Finale: Intended to be this for Zack Snyder's tenure with DC Films, and, give or take a possible Flashpoint movie, possibly the last hurrah for the cast.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Aside from Batman getting a tip from the Flash of the Knightmare timeline moments before sacrificing his life to save Lois Lane, absolutely nobody knows a thing about the Knightmare or any of the struggle that happened leading up to it.
- The Heavy: The Knightmare timeline has Superman serving as the primary threat despite Darkseid being the Big Bad, with Darkseid implied to see the remnants of the Justice League as so beneath him in terms of power that he is better off spending his time elsewhere.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After the Flash sends his final message from the Knightmare timeline, Batman chooses to sacrifice his life to protect Lois so Superman doesn't become Darkseid's slave.
- Legacy Character: Bruce Kent, Lois's son, becomes the second Batman years after his Heroic Sacrifice.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Darkseid is effectively this in the Knightmare timeline, as aside from being the cause of Superman's Face–Heel Turn, he doesn't bother to fight the Justice League at all — and it's not until the timeline is corrected that this happens.
- The Quisling: Lex Luthor was going to sell out Earth to Apokolips and reveal Lois as a weakness of Superman's to Darkseid. He would've then been Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves, getting killed by the Anti-Life Equation-controlled Superman for no longer serving anymore use to Darkseid.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Justice League of the Knightmare timeline is made up of Batman, the Flash, Cyborg, Mera, a Green Lantern (Hal Jordan in the original draft, John Stewart in the revised draft), and at least one enemy of the team (Deadshot in the original draft, Deathstroke and Joker in the revised draft).
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The Knightmare ceases to be relevant to the narrative the moment it gets retconned, with nobody from that timeline having an impact on the main story.
- Superhero Movie Villains Die: Darkseid dies by Batman's hand in the original draft, but Lex Luthor kills him in the revised version.
- Taking the Bullet: Batman gets a chest full of Omega Beams. In the original draft, he lives long enough to fight alongside the Justice League and kill Darkseid. In later revisions, it kills him immediately.
- Targeted to Hurt the Hero: Poor Lois gets this treatment by Darkseid, which directly leads to the Knightmare. Preventing her death is the key to stopping Darkseid's victory.
- Time Skip: One happens between the present day and the Knightmare timeline. In the original draft, it's set five years after Darkseid's invasion. In the revised draft, it's only two years later.
- Utopia: The end result of the good timeline is that an age of enlightenment and peace follows the defeat of Darkseid, with the Justice League safeguarding a better world.
- Villain World: The end result of Darkseid's invasion in the Bad Future is the barren wasteland seen in the Knightmare, being not too dissimilar to the surface of Apokolips itself.
- Aborted Arc: Wonder Woman is shown a vision of herself becoming the Goddess of War and stabbing Superman to death. This does not come up again, in either timeline that follows.
- The Cameo: Martian Manhunter is part of the future iteration of the Justice League, but does not appear anywhere else in the story.
- Cliffhanger: Part One ends with the world falling to Darkseid and the corrupted Superman, with a short epilogue showing the few surviving members of the Justice League preparing their counterattack for Part Two.
- Downer Ending: Part One ends on a depressing note, with a pregnant Lois, Wonder Woman and Aquaman dying, Superman being brainwashed, Cyborg being crippled, and Batman and Flash escaping unscathed and going into hiding with their remaining allies.
- Driven to Suicide: The Riddler opts to Go Mad from the Revelation and blows his brains out upon revealing to Batman that he's solved the Anti-Life Equation.
- Give the Baby a Father: In the original draft where Lois was pregnant with Batman's son, Superman vows to love the child regardless, becoming an adoptive father much like Jonathan Kent was to him.
- Handicapped Badass: Cyborg's limbs are somehow completely destroyed, leaving him as an immobile torso that is still capable of some combat.
- Love Triangle: Between Batman, Lois Lane, and Superman. Batman had an affair with her sometime between Superman's demise and resurrection, but Superman is initially under the impression that the child that she's pregnant with is his. Batman opts not to interfere with their relationship but still loves her.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: A bizarre variation in which Batman from the Knightmare timeline tells the Flash to tell the Batman of the adjusted timeline that Lois's baby is his — a reveal from the almost-parent to the future parent, via a time-travelling third party.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: The paternity of Lois' child comes into question when its revealed she had an affair with Bruce during the time Clark was dead. Not knowing whether the child was his or not leads to Bruce hesitating at a crucial moment to protect Lois from Darkseid.
- That Man Is Dead: Clark was originally going to be a lot more psychologically shaken up by his death and resurrection to the point of considering Clark Kent to be dead and only Superman remaining. Given how Clark is shown to be much more cheerful at having a second chance at life as well as resuming his job as a reporter at the end of both cuts of Justice League, this plotline was scrapped pretty early on.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Bruce Jonathan Kent is this for the memory of Bruce Wayne to both Lois (his mother) and Superman (his adoptive father).
- Wham Line: The Flash's final message to Batman, which changes the course of history, reveals who the father of Lois's child is:The Flash: Lois lied to you. You are the father.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The significance of Barry exonerating his father in Part One never comes up in the outline in Part Two outside of a passing mention.
- Writer on Board: The storyboard for Part Two has an unusual written aside pointing out how cool the prospect of the Flash and Green Lantern meeting each other in live-action for the first time is, despite the scene in question being a doomed, post-apocalyptic timeline. The line comes across as a personal statement of excitement from Geoff Johns, a huge fan of both characters and is seen as one of the definitive writers for them, who penned the storyboards based on existing outline from Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio.
- Abled in the Adaptation: Cyborg is not crippled in this version's take on the Knightmare.
- Anachronic Order: Justice League 2 was going to jump back and forth between the Knightmare timeline and the events leading up to it before the apocalypse, culminating in the retcon that prevents the Knightmare entirely.
- Asshole Victim: Batman kills the Joker in the Knightmare timeline, as signified by the "truce" card being destroyed. He had it coming.
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: On top of the aforementioned deaths of Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman, some other characters, like Harley Quinn, would be shown dying at various points in the Knightmare timeline.
- Decoy Protagonist: In a manner of speaking, Batman ends up being this for the Justice League trilogy that was pitched despite being the lead of the first film, as it is ultimately up to Superman to become the leader that his father believed that he could be.
- Designated Girl Fight: Wonder Woman and the Amazons versus Granny Goodness and the Female Furies. It doesn't end well for Wonder Woman in the Knightmare version of the timeline.
- Heel–Face Turn: After the retcon takes hold, Justice League 3 has several members of the Legion of Doom pulling one by means of Evil Versus Oblivion to help the Justice League fight Darkseid's invasion.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In Justice League 3, Lex Luthor pulls one off after realizing that Darkseid wants to destroy the human race. He nukes Darkseid's capital ship with himself on it.
- Hero Killer:
- Joker's murder of Robin is showcased in the form of a flashback.
- Granny Goodness kills Wonder Woman before the timeline is fixed.
- Darkseid does a number on the Earth, and it's explicitly established that he kills Aquaman himself before the timeline is fixed.
- Legacy Character: Barbara Gordon/Batgirl serves as the stand-in for Batman during the main events of Justice League 3. She later becomes Commissioner of the GCPD and hands the reins of Batman to the aforementioned Bruce Kent.
- Muggle Born of Mages: Bruce Kent somehow does not inherit his father's Kryptonian powers — which is part of the reason why he becomes the second Batman.
- Redemption Equals Death: Lex Luthor kills himself and Darkseid to save humanity.
- With Lois' help, the back-from-the-dead Superman will learn to become Clark Kent again, feeling more human than ever as he and Lois start a family.
Wonder Woman will reconnect with the Amazons and her mother, eventually becoming their new queen and rejoining these isolationist warriors with the outside world.
Aquaman, with the help of Mera, will bring the Seven Kingdoms together, becoming the one, true king, building a new alliance between the oceans and the surface.
The Flash will free himself from the past, releasing his father from prison with Cyborg's help and learning how to master his time travelling abilities, literally becoming able to be in two places at once.
Cyborg will evolve both into the modern day God of the Digital Age — and into a human once again.
And Batman will ultimately sacrifice his life for these unlikely friends and the woman he loves — leaving behind a legacy that will never truly die.
