Batman v Superman may have only just come out, but Warner Bros is already teasing the release of its R-rated home edition. They just posted this deleted scene to YouTube, and despite almost the entirety of our staff having watched this movie over the weekend, none of us have a clue what’s going on. Spoilers ahead!
The clip, entitled “Communion”, sees a group of soldiers descend into the Kryptonian scout ship and surround Lex Luthor, who’s taking a dip in his weirdo alien goop bath — presumably after the final battle, before he’s put in prison. But that’s not necessarily the weird bit: It’s what Lex is communing with.
The alien hologram entity is holding what appear to be three Mother Boxes — in DC’s comics, they’re all-powerful living computers created by the New Gods, the race of powerful beings that long-running villain Darkseid is a member of — before it fades away. It’s hard to tell, but there stands a good chance that this creature is meant to be a monstrous version of Steppenwolf, one of Darkseid’s generals from the comics, further tying into the film’s set up for Justice League. Commenter Ben Grimm offers an even better guess: Yuga Khan, Darkseid’s father — which would make sense too.
You can see why it was cut from the already lengthy film. It doesn’t really add much to the narrative and, at first glance, to anyone but a comics diehard it’s wildly confusing. Plus, it’s not like the film wasn’t already doing a ton of set-up for Justice League as it is.
What a strange thing to randomly release, Warner Bros.!