Who Plays Darkseid In Zack Snyder's Justice League Cut?

"Zack Snyder's Justice League" features one of the DC franchise's most nefarious villains: Darkseid. 

Released in 2017, the original film was maligned by critics and fans, criticized for lacking interesting characters and a compelling narrative, amongst other issues. Before the movie's release, "Avengers" director Joss Whedon was brought on board to retool the film, with his iteration of the film ultimately receiving the theatrical greenlight from Warner Bros. Unfortunately, that version was a bomb for DC, but the story didn't end there. Fans quickly began to notice that the final product was murky, with many concluding that the final product simply didn't have Snyder's stamp of approval.
After fan campaigns and insistence from Snyder himself, the maverick creative was finally allowed to debut his definitive version of the superhero romp in 2021. Titled "Zack Snyder's Justice League," the four-hour director's cut was a critical success and featured several major changes to the theatrical cut. Now, the "Snyder Cut" is considered canonical by many, filled to the brim with new storylines and characters not seen in the theatrical version, like Darkseid. Mentioned but missing in the theatrical cut, Darkseid has emerged as one of the DC Extended Universe's most powerful villains, and he's played by Ray Porter.
Seeing as Darkseid expertly fits into Snyder's definitive version of the film, it's fascinating how Porter's powerful and raw performance as one of DC's most notorious villains didn't make it into the theatrical version. What may surprise fans even more is how Darkseid is one of Porter's first major Hollywood roles, making his performance all the more special.

While Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) is the film's main antagonist, Ray Porter's Darkseid is pulling the strings in "Zack Snyder's Justice League." Obsessed with nabbing the Anti-Life equation from Earth and defeating the Justice League, Darkseid is set up as the DC Extended Universe's big bad with his limited screen time in Zack Snyder's definitive version of the superhero epic. And while it remains to be seen if Darkseid will ever return, audiences have Porter to thank for breathing life into the devious villain.

Porter boasts an extremely diverse and expansive CV, lending his talents to dozens of projects. On the cinematic front, Porter has appeared in films like "Almost Famous" and "Argo," though his roles were minimal. Fans might even recognize the actor from television shows like "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" and "Will & Grace," where, once again, he appeared in a small, guest-like capacity. Porter is primarily known for his voice acting work, having voiced several audiobooks, including Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" and Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary."

While speaking with The File Exiles in an interview before the release of the "Snyder Cut," Porter discussed how his clout as an audiobook voiceover artist nabbed him the "Justice League" gig. "Zack heard from somebody that I narrate audiobooks, and Zack really likes to hear his scripts," Porter explained, discussing how he helped the director narrate the project's script during rewrites. Ultimately, this budding friendship and creative collaboration led to Porter getting the motion capture role of Darkseid. However, it was only in 2021 when audiences got to see Porter perform the role.