‘Justice League’ Casts ‘Game of Thrones’ Star as Steppenwolf

Just in case you were wondering: Yes, Justice League is fully committed to that whole wacky thing with the Mother Boxes and Steppenwolf — which, as you may recall, were part of that crazy Batman v Superman deleted scene featuring Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor. Although Zack Snyder recently wrapped filming on DC’s superhero ensemble, there’s one more piece of casting news to deliver: Ciaran Hinds has stepped into the role of Steppenwolf.

The Wrap reports that Hinds, the Irish actor most recently best known for his role as Mance Rayder on Game of Thrones, will play the role of Steppenwolf in Justice League. For those unfamiliar, Steppenwolf is sort of like the Thanos of the DC universe. But Snyder’s version of the character (a giant CGI monster who looks like stage dressing for a Soundgarden show in 1996) is much different from the guy in the comics (an immortal human villain).

Here’s what we know about Steppenwolf’s role in the DC movie universe so far: He’s a member of Darkseid’s elite forces and head of the Apokoliptic military (as in Apokolips, not to be confused with the X-Men villain) — which helps explain the weird Omega symbol and those Parademons in Bruce Wayne’s post-apocalyptic nightmare in Dawn of Justice. But that might have been more of a premonition than a dream: A report from May revealed that the plot of Justice League (which may have been reworked a bit since then) will be pretty similar to a New 52 storyline where Steppenwolf invades Earth with an army of Parademons.

Darkseid may also briefly appear in the Justice League movie as a way to set up events for the sequel, or possibly DC and WB’s equivalent of Phase Two.

Unless the Steppenwolf that was juggling Mother Boxes in the Batman v Superman deleted scene was an exaggerated depiction of the baddie (it should be noted that he was communicating with Lex via the advanced system on the Kryptonian ship), it seems more likely that Hinds will merely be lending his distinctive voice to the character — which would explain his late casting.

Justice League hits theaters on November 17, 2017.