There’ve been so many DC movies that haven’t happened, and it can be easy to forget Guillermo del Toro wanted to do one for Justice League Dark. Chances of that movie happening in the near future with him at the helm are unlikely at the moment, so del Toro’s revealed some of what he wanted to do with the movie.
On the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, del Toro revealed he was positioning John Constantine to be the film’s lead among the ensemble cast of horror and magic-themed heroes like Swamp Thing, Zatanna, and Deadman. Here, the director told host Josh Horowitz that Swamp Thing had a good arc in the film, and that the team would’ve “gotten tangled into the Floronic Man,” both elements that he loved making for the screenplay.
While Dark didn’t get to the casting phase, del Toro revealed he wanted Doug Jones as Deadman. The two previously worked together on the Hellboy movies and The Shape of Water, and del Toro admitted he wanted mainly Jones “because I knew physically he could do the suit, and I knew his mannerisms.” Deadman would’ve had a sizable role in the film, it seems: not only would he have gotten an action scene where he uses his possession powers to jump from body to body in order to chase down the bad guys (including an old woman), he’d have brought the JLD to Gotham so they can ask Batman to borrow a plane. That’s something del Toro “would’ve loved” to have in the film, but in hindsight, not anymore.
Even to this day, the director said he’s still “in love” with the screenplay he cooked up for Justice League Dark, saying it “brought everybody in effortlessly.” When asked about possibly reviving it under the current James Gunn regime, del Toro said the two keep in touch, but there’s been no talks about it. As he told Horowitz, “the screenplay is there,” so maybe things could swing in his favor someday, even if it’s just another animated flick.
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