Justice League casts Dumbledore's brother as the villain Steppenwolf

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). 

Suspicions about the character's involvement arose days after Batman v Superman opened in theaters. Warner Bros. released a deleted scene, snipped from the film's finale, showcasing an alien character juggling a trio of Mother Boxes. Those suspicions were proven correct when producers flat out said, yeah, that him and he's in the film.  

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. 

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