Next year, DC’s Justice League will finally come together on the big screen for the first time as they go up against a common enemy. Now, we finally know which villain is going to menace the Earth in the League’s first movie.
The Wrap is reporting that Ciarán Hinds has joined the cast of Justice League as Steppenwolf, the leader of Apokolips’ military. We’ve reached out to Warner Bros. for comment on this report, but we have not yet received a reply. Hinds has previously starred in Rome, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Political Animals, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. But Game of Thrones fans probably know him best for his role as Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall.
According to The Wrap, Steppenwolf will be a CGI-created character based on Hinds’ motion capture performance. Steppenwolf will also have a different design than the one used in a deleted scene from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Casual comic book movie fans have to be wondering who Steppenwolf is, as he is far from the best known villain in the DC Universe. The good news is that if Steppenwolf is in this movie, it means that Darkseid can’t be far away. Both Steppenwolf, and his ruler, Darkseid, hail from Apokolips, home of the evil Gods in Jack Kirby‘s New Gods. Steppenwolf is actually Darkseid’s uncle in the comics, and that family relationship may carry into the film as well.
Steppenwolf isn’t considered to be one of the DC Universe’s top villains, but he played a key role in restarting the war between Apokolips and New Genesis (home of the benevolent New Gods). One of Steppenwolf’s signature weapons is his electro-axe; which will almost certainly show up in the Justice League movie as well. Kirby didn’t seem to have much use for Stepphenwolf in his stories, as he was killed off fairly quickly. But Steppenwolf was subsequently revived, and he even got his own action figure in the ’80s as part of the Super Powers TV show and comic book.
While Steppenwolf has been a fifth-string villain through most of his career, the New 52 Steppenwolf was presented as a more formidable adversary in the Earth 2 comic book series, where he invaded Earth on Darkseid’s behalf and helped kill that world’s Superman and Batman, as well as personally murdering Wonder Woman.
The biggest reason that Steppenwolf will be the villain in Justice League is that director Zack Snyder is probably saving Darkseid for either the second or third film in the series. That approach makes sense, because Darkseid is one of the biggest and baddest villains that DC has. But we’re still eager to see Darkseid make the leap to the big screen as well. We’d say that chances are pretty good that Darkseid will at least have a cameo appearance in this film.
Are you excited to see Steppenwolf in the Justice League movie? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!
Images: DC Comics/HBO/Warner Bros.
