New Batman V Superman pics tease Justice League villain

So remember how that last trailer for Batman v Superman just totally blurted out what should have been a massive in-movie reveal? Well, it seems that folks running the marketing campaign over at Warner Bros have not quite learned their lesson as a newly released image gives a gigantic hint at a future character who will more than likely be the main villain for Justice League.

Now because I’m a nice guy and don’t just want people showing up for POTENTIAL SPOILERS and nothing else, I’ve also got two new TV spots for the movie as well as a brand new poster, all of which re-emphasize the clash of ideologies and fists of the two titular characters played by Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill. So check those out below, but bail straight after the poster if you don’t want to see a POTENTIAL SPOILER which, admittedly, most fans had already guessed a long time ago. For the rest of you, keep on scrolling!

Now for those images. They come courtesy of the latest issue of Empire, which CBM managed to grab some scans of. You can check them all out in the gallery below, and they include several shots of the cast behind the scenes and in action in the movie, and also new pics of director Zack Snyder with the new Batmobile.

But there’s one pick in particular we want to draw your attention to, as it shows Batman dressed in that desert garb we’ve seen glimpsed in the previous trailers, standing in front of a massive scorched landscape with one very discerning detail: A gigantic Omega symbol seemingly burned into the ground.

And as any DC Comics fan worth his salt knows, the Omega symbol is the sigil of the biggest baddest villain in the whole DC Comics universe. The master of the Omega Beams, the Omega Sanction and just about all other Omega-ish things: Darkseid!

Long before we had ever even seen this pic or any of the recent trailers, fans had already suspected that Darkseid – who is basically the god of evil who resides on a planet that exists outside of our universe – would be the main villain for the inevitable Justice League films. There was really no bigger threat in the DCU, so it made perfect sense for him to be the one throwing down against the combined might of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg. I mean, who else were they going to use? Starro?!

Snyder and co have been very tight lipped though about their plans for Justice League and whether Darkseid would show up, but fans already had their first hint to his inclusion in the movie universe when an earlier trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Hints About Other Movies That Still Need To Be Made showed what appeared to be parademons – Darkseid’s flying footsoldiers – attacking people.

The shot appeared to be part of the desert scene in which we see Batman battling a Superman-sanctioned army of sorts and also Superman himself unmasking the Dark Knight. Many have speculated that this is in fact not real, but a dream sequence that Batman has, showing his worst fear of a world ruled by an alien god like Superman. But what if it isn’t a dream but a bit more?

One of Darkseid’s aforementioned ability, the Omega Sanction, is basically a torture device in which the target is continuously shunted around through time and space to alternate realities in which they experience an ever-worsening series of personal nightmare scenarios until they eventually die. This is exactly what Darkseid did to Batman during Grant Morrison’s infamous “Batman R.I.P.” story arc, so who’s to say that that’s not what we’re seeing glimpses of here?

Of course that would imply introducing Darkseid and also still somehow explaining the whole Omega Sanction thing in a movie that already seems stuffed to the gills (Aquaman?) in plot points that need to setup superheroes and their respective individual movies. In other words, things could get very messy. Unless they’ve pulled a fast one on us here, and this is actually some sort of post-credits or epilogue scene that basically just sets up the mystery of what is to come, and doesn’t actually feature in the main thrust of the narrative at all. After all, Batman getting a vision like that would certainly spur him on to gather a crew of heroes and prepare for the great big god who can kill you with a glance, right?

Meanwhile in the same Empire article, director Zack Snyder has revealed that it was the inclusion of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman into the script for Batman v Superman that really prompted them to change the movie into more of a setup for Justice League.

“It was incredibly organic how Wonder Woman came into the story. The whole concept came of, ‘Let’s not save anything. Let’s try it all.’ Then Wonder Woman’s entrance made us realize we were much closer to the Justice League than we thought. We realized we were one movie away.”

The article also goes on to reveal/confirm that Wonder Woman is indeed over 5000 years old – damn, she looks good for her age! – and by the time we meet her, she’s actually retired from the superhero business “because she’s seen it all, she has seen what humans can do, so it was very hard for her to come back and fight.”

Producer Deborah Snyder also elaborated on what we can expect from Wonder Woman in both Batman v Superman and Justice League, as well as in her solo movie.

“Her sexuality is part of her power, but she is also a feminist icon. Gender has been a hot topic, so it is very timely to bring her back. The way we have approached it, especially in the stand alone ovie, that is definitely there. Looking back and doing an origin story – and it is a period piece – see the role of women through history. There is a great source of humour in that now. It is so unbelievable you can’t even fathom it. You are still making a statement, but having some fun with it.”

So what do you guys think of Wonder Woman’s godly age? Want some of whatever skin cream she’s using? Also do you want to see Darkseid on-screen in Justice League or would you want him to show up even earlier? And who would you cast to play him? Darryn suggests going the all-CGI route and getting Michael Ironside to voice him. Personally, I just wish somebody would track down whatever career gutter Christopher Judge from Stargate SG-1 has slunk into over the years, clean him up, and put him in a set of blue armour and some face paint and call it day!

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice releases on March 25, 2016.

This article originally appeared on TheMovies.co.za

Last Updated: January 27, 2016