Justice League Dark: Guillermo del Toro Breaks Down His Approach to Unmade Film

Thanks to his achievements with his Hellboy films and the acclaim he earned for projects like Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth, and The Shape of Water, DC Comics fans have long hoped Guillermo del Toro would get to bring his planned Justice League Dark film to life at some point, and while it seems like all hope might be lost, the filmmaker recently broke down what excited him about the idea and the tone he had hoped to capture. Of course, we surely can’t abandon all prospects of the movie taking shape at some point, especially with HBO Max allowing new opportunities to unveil films, so it’s entirely possible del Toro can help imagine such an adventure, even if he enlists another filmmaker to actually helm it. 

“I never get involved [in a project] without passion, because it’s incredibly difficult anyway and you don’t go into a loveless marriage,” del Toro shared with the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “You have to say, ‘I do,’ and know you’re committing to at least a year in the scripting stage. If you make the movie, it’s three to four years. Five years or more.” 

He continued, “I think, the screenplay, one version of it is online and what it was, for me, [was] trying to find the perfect balance of the chemistries of these characters. I took a little bit of the opening of the Alan Moore [John] Constantine, and I took the dynamics between Abby [Arcane] and Swamp Thing, took the revelatory moments when Deadman gets into a body, how he would experience the consciousness of that being. One of my all-time favorites, Demon, Etrigan, and I love that character. So you try to put them together. Zatanna is really, for me, another character that is really effortlessly powerful and interesting. So trying to mix that with Klarion the Witch Boy.”

While del Toro might have already made multiple comic book movies, some fans are still hoping to see him develop a project for one of the two major publishers, though he went on to note that he’s always been more devoted to DC Comics over Marvel Comics.

“Look, I was a DC guy growing up and those are the characters I loved the most and I know the most. I’m even a DC guy in regards of liking the monsters,” the filmmaker confessed. “Marvel had Man-Thing and Morbius and this and that, but for me, the melancholy and beauty of Swamp Thing, both the classic Len Wein and [Bernie] Wrightson one, and the reinvention by Moore, [Stephen] Bissette, and [John] Totleben, it’s a great creature. I think one of the great creations of comic books.”

As of earlier this year, some interpretation of Justice League Dark was still in the cards for HBO Max, though no promising updates about what that project could be or who could be developing it have been revealed as of late.

Stay tuned for updates on the possible future for a live-action Justice League Dark project.

Would you like to see del Toro’s version of the concept come to life? Let us know in the comments below!