Justice League Dark takes the animation route

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

The development of a live action JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK (a.k.a. DARK UNIVERSE) DC Comics adaptation is something we've been covering for a long time. The project, which would be a team-up film featuring characters from comics with a horror bent, a team apparently consisting of John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, Zatanna, and Jason Blood/Etrigan the Demon, initially had Guillermo del Toro at the helm. Last summer, del Toro vacated the director's seat because Warner Bros. wanted to send it into production at the same time he was scheduled to direct PACIFIC RIM 2 for Universal.

PACIFIC RIM 2 ended up being delayed and del Toro passed the helm of that film over to Steven S. DeKnight, but he did not return to JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK/DARK UNIVERSE, instead choosing to focus on an original project called THE SHAPE OF WATER.

JLD/DU kept moving forward, though. We were hearing casting and director rumors. Would Fede Alvarez or Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado take over? If a new director ever signed on, we haven't heard about it. More than six months of silence have gone by.

Now some are speculating that the live action film has been abandoned in favor of an animated JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK movie. On August 2, 2016, Warner Home Video will be releasing the animated film BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE onto DVD and Blu-ray, and among the bonus features on the disc is expected to be a featurette called "A Sneak Peak at JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK", serving as both an announcement and a preview of an animated take on the concept.

This doesn't have to mean that the movie del Toro started developing has been canceled, an animated JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK and live action DARK UNIVERSE could easily co-exist, but it is surprising that an animated movie is coming out of nowhere after a live action one has been in the works for more than three years. If they have decided to give up on the live action version, I wonder if they're using del Toro's script for the animated film?

We will find out soon. We'll know for sure on August 2nd, if not before.