Justice League casts Dumbledore's brother as the villain Steppenwolf

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It's no secret that Justice League's villain is Steppenwolf. We just didn't know who would tackle the role until today. The Wrap reports that Irish thesp Ciaran Hinds has recently wrapped shooting his motion-captured performance as the film's big baddie. You may recognise him as Abelforth Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2 (above), or as former Wildling leader Mance Rayder in Game of Thrones (below). 

It took time to nail down the right actor for the role, which is interesting in itself because the part is - as mentioned above - motion-captured. Marvel did this with Josh Brolin's Thanos, the purple-skinned tyrant whose presence in the MCU has worked pretty well so far. 

Steppenwolf in the BvS deleted scene: "You'll never guess which one it's under!"

Steppenwolf in the BvS deleted scene: "You'll never guess which one it's under!"

Hinds' stint as the extraterrestrial will also mark a change in appearance for Steppenwolf. That deleted scene kinda made him look a bit like... well, nothing like he does in the comics. The Justice League version is getting "upgraded" according to the site's sources so expect him to look completely different.  

Rumors suggest that Steppenwolf comes to Earth as a minion of an even bigger bad, Darkseid. Step is a lieutenant of Darkseid tasked with retrieving the trio of Mother Boxes hidden with the Atlanteans, Amazonians, and mankind.  

Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, J.K. Simmons, Willem Dafoe, Amber Heard, Ciaran Hinds, Ezra Miller, and Ray Fisher, Justice League is currently scheduled for a November 17, 2017 release.  

Images: Warner Bros/HBO  

Gem Seddon
Gem Seddon

Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.