J.J. Abrams Confirmed to Create Justice League Dark Series for HBO Max

A new report confirms that J.J. Abrams will be diving into the DC Comics universe for one of his first projects under the new deal with Warner Bros., with a series based on Justice League Dark set for the new streaming service HBO Max. Abrams is also developing a spinoff of The Shining called Overlook, though it’s not clear if it will be more closely tied to the Stanley Kubrick film or Stephen King’s source material. Of course, DC fans will likely be more excited by the news of the Justice League Dark project, which will be a show instead of the long-gestating movie that has been stuck in development hell.

Justice League Dark is in development through Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV Group, with Abrams’ producing partner and wife Katie McGrath working on the project as well.

“What an amazing start to our association with the wildly imaginative Bad Robot team under J.J. and Katie,” said Kevin Reilly, chief content officer at HBO Max. “What could be better than an original J.J. idea and then Warner Bros. letting them loose on iconic IP from Stephen King and the DC Universe and to provide more must-have programming on HBO Max.”

Abrams’ version of the project is only the latest in the long line of attempts to adapt Justice League Dark for live-action, with Hellboy and Pacific Rim filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s production being the most noteworthy. Doug Liman also signed on to direct, though that project was also short lived.

Justice League Dark mostly focuses on the paranormal characters of the DC Universe with some of the most popular superheroes being Swamp Thing, Zatanna, Constantine, Deadman, Etrigan the Demon, and others.

Justice League Dark, Overlook, and a new original series entitled Duster were all announced by HBO Max as the first projects to come from Abrams overall deal with Warner Bros., meaning the filmmaker and Bad Robot have their hands full for the foreseeable future. The announcement also confirms that del Toro’s plans for a Justice League Dark film are completely buried at this point.

It’s not clear who Abrams will assemble to write, direct, and produce the project, but with popular shows like Westworld and Lost under his belt, fans can likely look forward to another epic television event with some revered DC Comics superheroes in the mix.