A Justice League production designer recently expressed his frustrations over how a concept design for an Apokolips pilot for the film didn't get used. Before the film's release, word began spreading that the film would have some connection to Apokolips. Fans soon learned that the link was Steppenwolf, the film's villain, one of the gods from that planet.

In DC Comics, Apokolips is a brutal planet inhabited by gods, a depressing place that resembles a high-tech industrial wasteland. Ruled by Darkseid, the population of Apokolips includes super-powerful entities who are mostly war-minded, with some, such as Steppenwolf, having grand ideas of taking over the universe one planet at a time using force. This was the premise of the Justice League movie: The villain had such plans, but he had to go up against Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg, and The Flash. However, Apokolips was supposed to have even more of an impact on the final film. Recently released concept art showed that the final battle in the movie was supposed to feature an Apokolips on Earth, a terraformed part of Earth created by Steppenwolf that the superheroes would have had to infiltrate. In the end, though, the movie didn't feature much of Apokolips at all.

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Recently, concept artist Jerad S. Marantz posted image to Instagram of an Apokolips pilot. Unfortunately, this design never made it into the final film. Justice League production designer Patrick Tatopoulos commented on the image asking, "Why didn't we use this? So amazing!" followed by a disgruntled, "Agrrr!" See a screenshot of the comment below.

Justice League saw a lot of changes during its production, most notably after director Zack Snyder left the production to tend to some family matters. Joss Whedon took over directing duties, which resulted in reshoots that changed the final movie that landed in theaters. After the film's release, many fans shared their displeasure over the final product, believing that Snyder's cut of the movie would have been a lot better and more faithful to the comics. However, the much-discussed Snyder cut of Justice League has never officially appeared, despite the demand for it.

There's no way of knowing if this concept art is from the Snyder part of the movie or not, but it does seem like Apokolips should have factored more heavily into its story. It's an intriguing place, ruled by the even more intriguing Darkseid. It's a shame that much of the planet and its story was left out.

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Source: Patrick Tatopoulos/Instagram