For years, director Guillermo Del Toro has been trying to make a movie about some of DC Comics’ supernatural heroes, with the film usually referred to as either Justice League Dark or Dark Universe (to emphasize how bright and cheery it will be). Very few concrete details about the project have ever come out, but the common assumption was that it would star fan-favorite characters like John Constantine, Zatanna, Swamp Thing, and Deadman. Unfortunately, the fact that one of those guys recently headlined a failed NBC show seems like a strong indication that Del Toro’s Justice League Dark was finished.
Now, DC may have just placed the final nail in Dark’s coffin, because ComicBook.com is reporting that the company is developing an animated movie about the same Dark characters. Granted, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Del Toro’s Dark movie won’t happen, but come on, it was probably never going to happen. Word of this new Dark movie apparently comes from the DVD special features for DC’s upcoming Killing Joke adaptation, which the British Board Of Film Classification says will include a thing titled “A Sneak Peak At Justice League Dark.”
That’s pretty much all we know at this point, but DC announcing its next direct-to-video animated feature in the special features of its previous direct-to-video animated feature has been a pretty common practice for a while. So it seems like this Justice League Dark movie is really getting made—just not the way that people wanted. However, none of this has been confirmed yet, so maybe some aspect of Del Toro’s movie—or even Del Toro himself—will still make its way into this movie. Either way, we’ll have a better idea when the Killing Joke Blu-ray/DVD comes out on August 2.