First published in 2011, “Justice League Dark” was an ongoing comic series created by writer Peter Milligan and artist Mikel Janín, part of the “New 52” line of comic books. The series provided an interesting twist on the Justice League: instead of the “Pantheon of Gods” featuring the A-List heroes, the “Dark” version of the Justice League would revolve around lesser-known, supernatural “heroes”.

The team line-up rotated, but often featured characters like John Constantine (last played in film by Keanu Reaves in 2005’s “Constantine”), Swamp Thing (a plant elemental), Deadman (a ghost who possesses dead bodies), Zatanna (the stage magician who also is an actual sorceress).

It’s been known that around the time of the DCEU taking off (with 2013’s “Man of Steel”) that acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro was in negotations to work on a “Justice League Dark” film, but delays kept occurring and Del Toro eventually left the projecte around 2015. Now, in interviews for del Toro’s recent “Frankenstein” film for Netflix, del Toro appeared recently on  Josh Horowitz’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, revealing some insights into previous works, inclued the scrapped “JL Dark” film.

Del Toro noted: “The lead was Constantine, and the plot made absolute, perfect sense. I really loved how they got tangled into the Floronic Man as one of the villains, Swamp Thing was really fleshed out.”

Matt Ryan, who played the role of Constantine for one season in NBC’s cancelled “Constantine” TV show in 2014, was thought to have been in talks to play Constantine in Del Toro’s Justice League Dark, but the director revealed “I was not casting yet.”

“I knew I wanted Doug Jones to be Deadman, only because I knew physically he could do the suit, I knew his mannerisms,” Del Toro revealed. The director described a chase scene involving Deadman “jumping from one body to the next. It would have been an 80-year-old lady in Central Park, running after the antagonist and then jumping into a traffic cop, or mounted cop… it would have been a thrilling thing.”

The cast might’ve also had a chance to interact with Ben Affleck’s Batman in one scene: “There was a moment where Batman came in briefly,” del Toro explained. “‘We need a plane,’ and Deadman said, ‘I know a friend of mine has a plane.’ And then you were in Bruce Wayne’s office. You know I would have loved to have done that, but now I wouldn’t, you know.”

But of course, the planned film fell apart, and Del Toro went on to direct 2015’s “Crimson Peak and 2017’s The Shape of Water” next. What we ended up with instead was an animated film in 2017’s “Justice League Dark” (part of the line of “Direct to Video” DC Animated projected), in which Matt Ryan did return to voice Constantine.

Do you think there will ever be a “Justice League Dark” feature film? Let us know in the comments below.

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