Back in 2016, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice took a head-first dive into a deeply interconnected MCU-style universe for DC Comics’ roster of characters. However, when it was slated by critics and audiences alike, and standalone movies like Wonder Woman and Aquaman found tremendous success, Warner Bros. decided to soften the connective tissue in the DC Extended Universe.
While this has led to some decent movies, it has also meant that a lot of the earlier set-up that DC fans sat through will now never get paid off. Here are some of the curious easter eggs from the movie that aren't likely to lead anywhere now.
Knightmare
The “Knightmare” sequence in Batman v Superman is one that fans were curious to see paid off. Although it stopped the movie dead and had nothing to do with the story at hand, it did seem to set up a wild future for the DCEU.
In what seemed to be a post-apocalyptic future, a heavily armored Batman headed into a city where he was faced with a swarm of Parademons before being attacked by an evil Superman. It’s unclear how Zack Snyder intended to get from point A to point B with this one, but since Warner Bros. bastardized his take on Justice League, it’ll probably remain a mystery.
The Flash’s time travel
In another completely incongruous scene that could’ve been cut from the movie without affecting its actual plot, the Flash appeared to a half-asleep Batman from what seemed to be a distant future. This was similar to the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” storyline from the comics, which saw the Flash running through time to warn his fellow heroes about Earth’s impending demise – and the first hero he came to was Batman.
In Batman v Superman’s version, Barry Allen told the Dark Knight that Lois Lane was “the key,” that he was “right about him” (presumably meaning Superman, who was supposed to be evil in Justice League), and that he worried he was “too soon.” Unfortunately, despite the curiosity it created in fans, this was never paid off, and probably never will be.
Metallo
Emmett Vale made a surprise appearance in Batman v Superman. Portrayed by actor Ralph Lister, he was the scientist working for LexCorp Industries researching a hunk of Kryptonite for Lex Luthor. He’s the one who spots its effects on General Zod’s corpse and realizes it can be used to kill Superman.
In the comics, Emmett Vale is the human scientist who gives Kryptonite its name on Earth and eventually uses it to build the classic Superman villain Metallo. This seemed to be setting up a future for the villain in the DCEU, but since there have been no developments yet, it probably won’t happen.
“He’s hungry. He’s found us. And he’s coming!”
In the closing moments of Batman v Superman, the Caped Crusader visited Lex Luthor in prison and the iconic villain told him, “he’s hungry. He’s found us. And he’s coming!” This was seemingly a setup for the original version of Justice League, which would’ve seen Darkseid taking over Earth and Batman heading into the future to reverse the damage of his invasion.
However, some fans have also noted that Luthor could’ve been referring to a different beloved Superman villain: Brainiac. While Darkseid is hungry for destruction, Brainiac is hungry for knowledge. Still, since Darkseid had already been set up as the DCEU’s big bad, it seems unlikely that Luthor was talking about anyone else.
KGBeast
As soon as a character named Anatoli Knyazev appeared in Batman v Superman, fans recognized it as the alter ego of supervillain KGBeast. While the character played by Callan Mulvey in the movie – a henchman of Lex Luthor – looked and acted nothing like the character from the comics, some fans wondered if this was leading to a modern-day take on the KGBeast character.
He was conditioned by the KGB to take on the CIA, and although the KGB has since been shut down, he could easily be retooled for the DCEU (but it seems unlikely).
“Zod of Kandor”
When Lex Luthor brought General Zod’s corpse on board the Kryptonian ship and dropped it into the ship’s genesis pool to be turned into Doomsday, the ship’s A.I. identified the DNA as being from “Zod of Kandor.” DC Comics fans will notice that Kandor is the Kryptonian city that was shrunk down by Brainiac and confined to a bottle to add to his collection of intergalactic knick-knacks.
After defeating Brainiac in a battle, Superman reclaimed the bottled Kandor and kept it in the Fortress of Solitude. However, even in 2016, it seemed unlikely that this storyline would make it to the big screen in the bleak, grounded DCEU.
The Riddler’s graffiti
One of the most interesting developments of Bruce Wayne’s character in Batman v Superman was that he didn’t reside in Wayne Manor. Instead, he had a cool, modern house out in the countryside and he’d allowed Wayne Manor to become a run-down, decrepit dump filled with unkempt shrubbery and graffiti.
Among typical, meaningless graffiti like “Joe + Kayla” and “Drunk Punx,” fans noticed a very distinctive question mark – the same question mark used by the classic Batman villain the Riddler. However, since Ben Affleck’s Batman is out and the character is being completely reinvented with Robert Pattinson in the role, that minor Easter egg will likely be swept under the rug.
Cyborg’s origin story
When Bruce Wayne flicked through some video files on his computer that showed all the other “meta-humans” caught on film in Batman v Superman, it seemed like a bunch of solo movies were being teased. One of these was Cyborg, whose origin story would’ve been fun to explore in his since-delayed standalone movie.
However, the fact that he watched a video of Cyborg exercising his cybernetic powers was later directly contradicted in Justice League. In the 2017 ensemble team-up, Cyborg explains that he got his powers from a Mother Box that “lit up like Christmas” on the night Superman died. So, how did Wayne watch a video of him in action long before then?
Darkseid’s Omega symbol
During the “Knightmare” sequence, when we see Batman standing in front of a burning city in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a giant Omega symbol is etched in the desert. This is the symbol of Darkseid – essentially, the DC universe’s answer to Thanos – so it seemed to suggest that he would be the DCEU’s big bad.
Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio’s original script for Justice League, which explored a distant future in which Darkseid had taken over Earth, was mostly scrapped by Warner Bros. when executives panicked over the underwhelming response to BvS and the iconic villain’s involvement in the film was reduced to a passing mention.
“HAHAH, joke’s on you, Batman!”
Ben Affleck’s Batman was an older, bitterer, more cynical take on the character than we’d seen in the earlier movies. At one point in Batman v Superman, we see him look forlornly at a Robin costume that’s been tagged with neon spray-paint that says, “HAHAHA, joke’s on you, Batman!”
This seemed to suggest that, at some point in the past, Batman fought alongside Robin and the Joker killed him. Now that Affleck has departed from the role and Robert Pattinson has been cast to play a 30-year-old Bruce Wayne (and Jared Leto’s Joker is probably being replaced by Joaquin Phoenix’s), this prequel setup seems to be all but dead.