Zack Snyder’sJustice Leaguehas arrived. After several years of rumors, waiting and mystery, HBO Max has released the Snyder Cut upon the world. It is a markedly different movie than the one that hit theaters in 2017, and 2017 was a different time for the DCEU. At the time, Ben Affleck still planned to star in and direct a version ofThe Batman. While that movie isn’t going to happen, the Snyder Cut did set up the movie that was ultimately scrapped.

Warning:spoilersahead forZack Snyder’s Justice League. Proceed with caution. The final chapter of the sprawling, four-hour superhero epic is an epilogue that helps set the stage for what would have come in the planned sequels. At one point, we see Arkham Asylum where Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor is being held. We come to find that he has escaped. Cut to a fancy yacht in the middle of the sea as a speedboat pulls up. We see Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke get off of it and board the yacht.

There, he is greeted by Lex, who offers Deathstroke, aka Slade Wilson, some champagne. Up to this point, it’s eerily similar to the post-credits scene that was attached toJustice Leaguein theaters. However, instead of setting up the Legion of Doom, Lex discusses the prospect of Slade, wanting to kill Batman. Lex, specifically, inquires about his willingness to do the job for free. An eye for an eye, as Lex puts it, implying that Batman was responsible for taking the assassin’s eye. Lex then offers Slade this little tidbit.

“If you want the Batman, here is something that can help you: his name isBruce Wayne.”

“On second thought… we do have something to celebrate,” Slade answers back in response. This, it seems, set the table for what would have beenThe Batmanunder Ben Affleck’s direction. During the production ofJustice League,Ben Affleckreleased some now-infamous footage of Deathstroke, revealing that he was going to be the villain in his solo movie within the DCEU. But by January 2017, it was revealed that Affleck was no longer going to direct the movie. That paved the way for Matt Reeves to come in and go his own way, with Robert Pattinson taking up the mantle in a version ofThe Batmanset outside the confines of the DCEU.