In 2021, director Zack Snyder finally had the opportunity to complete his vision for his DCEU team-up movie with the HBO Max release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The oft-discussed Snyder Cut not only pitted DC’s biggest team of heroes against Steppenwolf but also teased the presence of Darkseid, one of DC’s most iconic supervillains.
Even though Steppenwolf was the Justice League’s main adversary during the four-hour runtime, Ray Porter’s Darkseid loomed over the plot as the Snyder Cut teased his reign of terror over the galaxy. His cruelty and merciless nature help bring a much darker tone for Snyder’s new take on Justice League, although there are still a couple of loose ends that fans still talk about after the movie’s HBO Max debut.
The biggest of these discussions is what many fans believe to be a plot hole, as it’s unclear how Darkseid forgot the location of the Anti-Life equation in his quest for universal domination. Now, in a recent interview on the subject, the man behind the DC antagonist shared his own thoughts on why that information escaped Darkseid’s mind.
Darkseid Actor on Justice League Plot Hole
DC
Speaking with FandomWire, Zack Snyder’s Justice League star Ray Porter addressed how Darkseid forgot the location of the Anti-Life equation in the film.
When asked how Darkseid could forget something so important, Porter looked at the fact that the villain had conquered so many planets over the years. The actor made it clear that it had been an incredibly long time since Darkseid first found the equation and that he was always looking to get it back:
“Consider the fact that he’s turned a hundred thousand worlds to dust, it was so long ago that he found this equation and then it was taken from him in battle and he always wanted to ‘re-find’ it.”
With so many years and worlds in play, Porter noted how many times Darkseid had changed in terms of personality and character in that time as well. With how much knowledge the villain possesses, Porter imagines that he just lost it naturally with how vast the landscape is that he’s dealing with:
We are talking so many thousands of years, so many planets, universes, and possible Earths. Uxas, the person who became Darkseid has also changed so much in that long timespan. So, for someone whose knowledge spans so much, maybe the knowledge got lost in the vastness that it was on this Earth in particular. And then, Steppenwolf, of all people, approaches him about this.”
As for why Darkseid isn’t the biggest fan of Steppenwolf, Porter admitted that he wasn’t as “aware of the history” behind their relationship:
“I am not aware of the history and intricate details about this ‘great tragedy’.”
Still Mystery to Darkseid’s Story in ZSJL
With a whopping four hours of runtime in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, even a plot point as big as the search for the Anti-Life equation is one that could have gotten lost in the overarching story. Even so, it’s clear that Porter thought his character’s backstory through as fully as possible in terms of Darkseid’s confusing quest for universal conquest.
Putting it in simple terms, Darkseid is a being that’s been in existence for such a long time that the location of the Anti-Life equation was simply lost with too much information in his mind over the millennia. In a way, it’s almost similar to Marvel Studios’ Eternals, in which Angelina Jolie’s Thena suffers from Mahd Wy’Ry due to her memories overwhelming her brain, although Darkseid is already more predisposed to unleashing violence.
While this may be something of a plot hole for viewers in the year since the Snyder Cut debuted, Porter finds a way to make the plot point make sense as his villain sees his first round of live-action storytelling. Fans are hoping that this isn’t the last time Darkseid unleashes his full power over the DC universe, especially with the character having made such an impact on this outing.
