Guillermo del Toro Finally Reveals His Lost Justice League Dark Plans

Guillermo del Toro just opened up about the Justice League Dark movie he never got to make, and the specifics are way more detailed than I expected. He walked through the team, the villains, the cameo that was going to make fans grin, and where things stalled out. This comes from his chat with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, and it sounds like a project he genuinely loved... even if he has zero interest in doing it now.

The version del Toro was building

• Casting plans: He hadn’t started casting, but he did have one very specific wish — Hellboy alum Doug Jones as Deadman. The logic is very del Toro: Jones could physically handle the suit and the movement, and the director already knew how to get the most out of his performance.
• The lineup and the bad guys: The script brought the characters together in a way he felt actually made sense (his words were basically: it all clicked). Swamp Thing was heavily developed, and Floronic Man was one of the villains.
• The Batman cameo: There was going to be a quick, clean cameo from the Caped Crusader that functioned like a punchline setup.

"We need a plane." "A friend of mine has a plane." Cut to Bruce Wayne’s office.

That’s it — in and out, no fuss. A neat bit of connective tissue rather than a hijack-the-movie moment. Also, del Toro flat-out said he would have loved to make this back then, but now? He wouldn’t.

How far it got

Del Toro, who is 61, says the screenplay exists and took a couple of years to develop. They never got as far as concept art, but he had big set pieces mapped out. His favorite was a chase built around Deadman literally body-hopping mid-pursuit. That’s the kind of spooky, kinetic idea you can practically see him directing in your head.

About James Gunn and any revival talk

If you’re wondering whether this could be revived under DC Studios’ current regime: don’t count on it. Del Toro hasn’t pitched it to co-CEO James Gunn. He does message Gunn occasionally about other projects, and he’s complimentary — he called Gunn remarkably smart, said he loved Superman, and likes the direction of the new DC universe — but he isn’t trying to resurrect Justice League Dark.

So, to recap the behind-the-scenes nerdy stuff: there’s a finished script, a clear sense of tone and set pieces, a clever Batman drive-by, Swamp Thing and Floronic Man were central, Doug Jones was the dream Deadman, and the whole thing died before the art department ever got involved. It’s one of those almost-movies that sounds maddeningly cool — and, for now, it’s staying in the drawer.