I’m not sure if this is a spoiler as it will probably be announced in the trailers and marketing for the film, if it’s true. While it’s been known for a while that Darkseid would be the big bad for the Justice League, it’s looking more and more like we really won’t feel his impact until the second chapter of the film hits in 2019. That leaves a vacancy for evil in chapter one. The seemingly obvious villain, according to most fans, would be Brainiac. Along with being a great baddie, he also raises the stakes on needing Superman to return from beyond the grave. There are also plenty of fans who like to joke that the movie already has a built in villain – Zack Snyder.

No, some sources are reporting that the villain is someone that no one really expected, but that we’ve already seen… sort of… at least in the deleted scenes. In particular, this deleted scene:

If you don’t know him, that big horny dude is Steppenwolf (no relation to the 1970’s band). He’s actually Darkseid’s uncle and a pretty bad ass, if not relatively obscure character as far as the public consciousness is concerned. Supposedly, we’ll see Darkseid, but his evil plot won’t kick into gear until the end of chapter one. Then, it will follow through The Flash – March 23rd, 2018, Aquaman – July 27th, 2018, and Shazam – April 5th, 2019, before picking back up for a crescendo in Justice League Part 2 on June 14th, 2019.

Source: Collider