Artwork shows Swamp Thing and Constantine from scrapped Justice League Dark

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

There have been a couple JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK animated movies, but attempts to make an live action adaptation of the DC Comics property, which follows a team of heroes with supernatural abilities, have proven more difficult. The project spent years in development hell, with Guillermo del Toro being the first filmmaker hired to write and direct. He crafted a screenplay that featured the likes of John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Etrigan the Demon, Deadman, Spectre, Zatanna, Zatara, Madame Xanadu, and Floronic Man. Eventually, del Toro vacated the director's seat and the project was handed over to Doug Liman. Liman would end up moving on from the project as well, but before he left Houston Sharp was hired to create some concept art – and now Sharp has shared a view samples of the artwork he created, based on Liman's vision for the film.

In the images below you can see what Liman's version of Swamp Thing would have been like, plus Sharp offered a glimpse of a scene involving Constantine, a prostitute, and Klarion, "the corpse of a boy possessed by flies".

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SWAMP THING. An old concept I did for Doug Liman's cancelled Justice League Dark movie. Doug had the idea of Swamp Thing being a spirit of the swamp, coming into form when a group of arsonists set the plants ablaze. This particular design was a collaboration between myself and @david_masson_sg . Too bad the film got canned, it was a lot of fun to work on! More JLD concepts incoming, stay tuned! #dc #justiceleague #swampthing #painting #art #fire

A post shared by Houston Sharp (@houstonsharp) on Aug 23, 2020 at 7:48am PDT

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another early design for Swamp Thing for Doug Liman's cancelled Justice League Dark film. #dc #comics #swampthing #justiceleague

A post shared by Houston Sharp (@houstonsharp) on Aug 24, 2020 at 9:03am PDT

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Klarion, the corpse of a boy possessed by flies, politely asks Constantine for a turn with his whore. Another concept done for Doug Liman's cancelled Justice League Dark film. This illustration might be the peak of my artistic career. #dc #justiceleague #dark #klarion #constantine #swampthing

A post shared by Houston Sharp (@houstonsharp) on Aug 26, 2020 at 9:36am PDT

We'll never see Liman's JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK, but it's interesting to see these illustrated moments from the film that will never be.

A live action Justice League Dark television series is now in the works, coming to us from Warner Media and Bad Robot. The project is set up at HBO Max and is being executive produced by J.J. Abrams and Ben Stephenson.