Guillermo del Toro is a director whose imagination transforms the grotesque into something unexpectedly beautiful. That sensibility made his proposed Justice League Dark adaptation one of the most tantalizing unrealized projects in DC’s history. In a recent conversation he revisited the film’s roster, revealed a surprise cameo, and described a vivid action sequence he’d envisioned.
Speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, del Toro explained that although the movie never reached casting, he already pictured one performer for a key role and even choreographed a chase around that casting choice. He also confirmed the script included a brief but meaningful appearance by Batman.
Del Toro said he hadn’t begun formal casting, but he knew he wanted Doug Jones to portray Deadman — not just for Jones’s physicality, but because del Toro felt Jones’s movements and presence matched the character. Jones, a frequent del Toro collaborator who appeared in films such as Hellboy II and The Shape of Water, was central to the director’s conception of the team, and del Toro praised the screenplay’s fluid way of bringing the characters together.
He outlined the core ensemble plainly: John Constantine would anchor the team, the Floronic Man would serve as a primary antagonist, and Swamp Thing would be given a fully realized arc. Del Toro described a short scene that would transition the audience from a supernatural beat to Bruce Wayne’s world — a request for a plane leads into a cutaway to Wayne Enterprises, and then a fleeting Batman appearance.
One set piece stood out in del Toro’s imagination: a kinetic Deadman sequence built around body-hopping. He pictured a long, breathless chase in which Deadman leaps from one host to another — an elderly woman sprinting through Central Park, then into a traffic officer, and finally into a mounted policeman — a sequence designed to be both thrilling and eerie.
Although del Toro remains in contact with James Gunn and admires Gunn’s stewardship of the DC universe, the director conceded his version of Justice League Dark was developed before Gunn’s involvement and never reached the art or production stages. He noted the screenplay had been through years of development and contained several memorable set pieces that never made it to screen.
It’s easy to imagine why fans lament the loss: del Toro’s blend of melancholy and wonder suits a macabre ensemble perfectly. Characters like Deadman and Constantine could have echoed the soulful oddity del Toro brought to Ron Perlman’s Hellboy or Doug Jones’s Abe Sapien, while Swamp Thing’s tragic romance with Abby Arcane feels tailor-made for the director’s lyrical, aching style. Though projects like the one produced by J.J. Abrams may revisit the property, fans can only hope the new DCU finds a way to fold del Toro’s distinctive voice into something equally strange and beautiful.
Source: Polygon
