Unused “Batman v Superman” Doomsday Concept Designs

Designer Jerad S. Marantz has shared a number of his Doomsday concept designs created for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” via his Instagram account.

The early Doomsday concept designs by Marantz and fellow designer Constantine Sekeris have closer ties with the design from the comic book version of the creature than what was eventually used in the film.

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MattComics
MattComics
April 9, 2017 6:13 pm

IMO the fact that they didn’t use that first there is absurd. It’s instantly recognizable as Doomsday, would have looked great on screen and made a sweet action figure. What we got looked like a butt-naked Bayturtle.

Kevin Pritchard
Kevin Pritchard
April 9, 2017 9:51 pm

one looked like he copied the animated series episode THE DOOMSDAY SANCTION the looked like crap …doomsday in the movie wasn’t mind-blowing but he looked good to me …he was a monster

Jpx98
Jpx98
April 9, 2017 11:16 pm

Have to agree, well maybe except for the last part.
Have wonder why they didn’t go with the first one and the last 2 at least.

NeoRanger
NeoRanger
April 10, 2017 2:11 am

A lot of those look better than the one they went with. It’s not just that they’re more recognizable from the comics (which does count as a good thing), it’s also that they’re more memorable as designs. I don’t know how much of it was creative decision, but I’ll assume that at least part of it was cost. Especially that 3rd design (4th post) looks like a b**** to animate.

mindhavens
mindhavens
April 10, 2017 4:48 am

I seriously wonder how much of a last minute decision it was to add Doomsday? My assumption is whilst making the film they didn’t know how to end it and added Doomsday in. This would in part explain why both the CGI and design was lacking. I also heard that in Asia they couldn’t understand why Batman would fight Superman, so they needed something else to focus on – which is also likely why they revealed Doomsday’s presence in the trailer, which was such a massive spoiler. For Justice League I hope WB learn from the Star Wars trailers where… Read more »

LJ_602
LJ_602
April 10, 2017 11:59 am
Reply to  mindhavens

It wasn’t really a last minute thing, Snyder’s plan was to kill Superman, he wanted Superman dead for his story of BvS going into Justice League. He wanted Batman to take the central role in Justice League and he also felt that, and I quote, “It was pretty early (in discussions), it was important going into Justice League that it was Bruce Wayne that was gathering the Justice League.” “With Superman around it’s kinda hard, with Superman around for Bruce to do that.” “And for Superman’s evolution there’s a crucible that he has to go through to embrace his humanity,… Read more »

mindhavens
mindhavens
April 10, 2017 12:13 pm
Reply to  LJ_602

Your quote doesn’t mention Doomsday, only the focus on Batman – perhaps Batman originally killed Superman. Last minute in movie terms can still be months, for example even 6-12 months would have been a relatively short time to create the Doomsday sequence.

As for the Asian market, that a comment on this site from an Asian contributor saying people in his country could understand Batman fighting Superman and it was a big problem for them.

LJ_602
LJ_602
April 10, 2017 12:39 pm
Reply to  mindhavens

I don’t agree that was the case, there are too many purposeful parallels with BvS and Excalibur to suggest that after production had wrapped they said “Wait, lets have Doomsday do it” during post production. 6-12 months prior to releases was post production for the film. Filming wrapped in Dec 2014, so if it were Batman and what you’re saying is true, then they would have already filmed that with Batman. Then would have had to gone back and done that entire sequence with reshoots after Dec 2014. Gal Godot did her Wonder Woman scenes in May of 2014, her… Read more »

LJ_602
LJ_602
April 10, 2017 12:21 pm

I do like the look of the first/last concept of Doomsday, but I think that didn’t fly because it was the Zod mutation of Doomsday rather than Doomsday proper as we know him from the comics. So it had to be this weird mutation of a thing going from a big naked freak Hulk Zod to evolve in to something that kinda looked like Doomsday at the end. **********************************************************************************************************Potential Spoilers********************************************************************************************************************************************** More of a theory of mine, but we all know and it’s no secret that Snyder sees Superman as a Christ character and wants to set up parallels. I think… Read more »

lcmcbain
lcmcbain
April 10, 2017 2:51 pm
Reply to  LJ_602

^ I think that’s a pretty plausible theory. Especially for Snyder.

JasEl
JasEl
April 10, 2017 9:23 pm
Reply to  LJ_602

Interesting thought, but I think Superman will come back on his own without the genesis chamber. The shot at the end of BvS after the burial, the dirt rising up from the coffin suggests that he will resurect himself, or, as in the comics, he never really died, but instead, went into a healing coma.

LJ_602
LJ_602
April 11, 2017 12:16 am
Reply to  JasEl

Well even in the comics he went into the birthing matix, it wasn’t on his own.
But to be fair Snyder did day he wanted the scene where Superman was dead in space after the atom bomb to show Superman could be revived.
I don’t think he will come back on his own based on that, but I think his will to live will play a part.

lcmcbain
lcmcbain
April 11, 2017 9:38 am
Reply to  LJ_602

But to be fair Snyder did day he wanted the scene where Superman was dead in space after the atom bomb to show Superman could be revived.

That scene was ridiculous for a few reasons, not least of which is that Snyder et al apparently don’t know how the Sun works.

LJ_602
LJ_602
April 11, 2017 10:33 am
Reply to  lcmcbain

Well if I had to guess he just wanted to get as many Dark Knight Returns references as he could. That’s why that scene was in there IMO. I mean he’s in space, taking Doomsday out of orbit and one General comes up with the idea to nuke them both and the president is just cool with it? What happened to the EMP, nuclear fall out or even a shade of concern over detonating a nuke over the US? There are so many weapons in the US arsenal and they go straight to nukes? Makes no sense, absolutely no sense.… Read more »

lcmcbain
lcmcbain
April 11, 2017 10:36 am
Reply to  LJ_602

Very much agreed.

Rod
Rod
April 13, 2017 8:32 pm
Reply to  LJ_602

I have a theory, after watching Man of Steel again, it dawned on me – the scene where he goes into the scout ship, it wasn’t Kara that escaped the pod, I think it’s the Eradicator and it will be the Eradicator that brings or helps bring Superman back to life.

LJ_602
LJ_602
April 13, 2017 11:26 pm
Reply to  Rod

I thought the prequel comic showed it was Kara.

NeoRanger
NeoRanger
April 14, 2017 8:50 am
Reply to  LJ_602

It did. It’s certainly Kara, unless they elect to retcon that; and, in all fairness, tie-in comic books may as well be one’s headcanon, for all the impact they have on the actual movies.

Rod
Rod
April 14, 2017 9:50 pm
Reply to  NeoRanger

You don’t know it’s Kara, think about this. We see Kara crash the ship, she is out of the pods and ALL of the pods were open. In the movie, only 1 pod was open. We see the figure leave the ship and it could be Kara or it could be Dev-Em or Kara. And the ship is HUGE so it could have more than one area where the stasis pods are. Back to the movie, we see the bodies in the pod and one is open and an open pod – the pod has to be open (we saw… Read more »

Supreme
Supreme
April 17, 2017 7:11 pm
Reply to  Rod

I had the same Eradicator theory once I noticed the open pod. He would be a perfect villain for MoS2. But then I found out later that the pod was for Kara. But Like you, I believe there is still some wiggle room with this concept. I have another pitch for the open pod too. Lets say it was for Tor-An. He wanders the Earth and conquers all of this primitive planet. The gods create Black Adam to fight him off. Now the oddly announced Black Adam movie fits into the DCEU nicely. Maybe Tor-An changes his name to VandaL… Read more »

Supreme
Supreme
April 17, 2017 6:18 pm

I didnt mind how he looked in the movie, but that first one does look awesome! I just wish we could rewind time and WB/DC can delete that final trailer which reveals Doomsday. It basically watered down the movie for myself and alot of others. I saw it on opening night with my twin sister and our 17yr old nephew. Neither of them knew that Doomsday (or Wonder Woman) was going to be in the movie. I was sitting right between the 2 of them and during the movie’s climax, I could feel their heads exploding! Jaws were dropped, cheering… Read more »

GodzillaofSteel
GodzillaofSteel
April 17, 2017 8:34 pm

As much as I enjoyed “Batman V Superman”, I’ll still never understand why they didn’t go with the proper, comic-book-accurate-look of Doomsday. This concept art is great! And it would’ve been great if they used Doomsday comic-book-accurate-look.