Frankenstein Director Guillermo del Toro’s Canceled DC Epic Would Have Starred John Constantine — With a Batman Cameo
Forget capes and quips—Justice League Dark would have plunged DC headfirst into demons, magic, and the occult.
Guillermo del Toro finally spelled out what his version of Justice League Dark would have looked like, and it is packed with the kind of nerdy development details studios usually bury. On Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, he laid out the lineup, a blink-and-you-miss-it Batman cameo, the villain, and why the whole thing eventually evaporated.
What he was building
"It was John Constantine, and the plot made absolute sense, perfect sense. I loved that screenplay. I was in love with that screenplay. I thought it brought everybody in effortlessly."
- Lead and roster: John Constantine would have been front and center, alongside Zatanna, Swamp Thing, Deadman, and Etrigan — the supernatural squad from the comics that takes the cases the main Justice League can’t or won’t handle.
- Quick Batman moment: when the team needs a plane, Batman briefly steps in, points them toward a solution, and we pop into Bruce Wayne’s office. Del Toro says he loved that idea then, but wouldn’t do it now.
- Villain: Floronic Man was on deck as one of the antagonists, with Swamp Thing especially fleshed out in the script.
- Dark Universe: the movie’s working title was, appropriately, Dark Universe.
- Casting ideas: nobody was officially cast, but del Toro wanted his frequent collaborator Doug Jones to play Deadman — he figured Jones could handle the suit and the very specific physicality that character needs.
So why didn’t it happen?
Back in 2013, del Toro was announced to adapt the Justice League Dark comics into a live-action film. As Zack Snyder’s DC universe kept expanding, Warner/DC tightened continuity, and del Toro says his film would have needed to plug into that larger extended universe. The project stalled. He moved on to other things — Crimson Peak and then The Shape of Water — and, for a bit, The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman was attached to direct. The live-action Justice League Dark never materialized.
Where DC is now
Del Toro, who is also the Frankenstein director, sounded optimistic about the current DC reset. Earlier in the podcast, he praised James Gunn’s approach to the new DCU: Chapter One and specifically what Gunn is doing with Superman. That said, del Toro isn’t attached to any DC projects at the moment.