Guillermo del Toro reveals his perfect vision for Justice League Dark

Give me del Toro's take on Swamp Thing and my life is yours, Gunn

Guillermo del Toro is a visionary director, able to reinvent the macabre and tell a beautiful story amidst the darkness. As such, there’s a particular film in this vein that never made it beyond talks that haunts DC Comics fans to this day: del Toro’s Justice League Dark film. The Frankenstein director is still just as passionate about the project as the fans, and in a recent discussion, he opened up about the characters involved, a special cameo, and even an action set piece he had in mind.

On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, host Josh Horowitz pressed del Toro on the film’s lineup. While the project never reached the casting stage, del Toro admitted that for one character he already had someone in mind, envisioned so clearly that he built an entire chase sequence around them. He also confirmed the script included a surprise appearance from none other than Batman.

“No I was not casting yet. I knew I wanted Doug Jones to be Deadman,” del Toro said. “Because physically I could do the suit and I know his mannerisms and all that. I loved that screenplay. I was in love with that screenplay. I thought it brought everybody in effortlessly, you know.” Jones is a frequent collaborator of del Toro, starring in films like Hellboy 2 and The Shape of Water. The director also touched on the cast of characters that would go on to make up this supernatural-related superhero team.

“It was John Constantine, and the plot made absolute sense, perfect sense. The Floronic Man was one of the villains, and it was really great because Swamp Thing was very fleshed out. There was a moment where Batman came in briefly. They said, ‘We need a plane’ and he said, ‘I know a friend of mine has a plane’, and then you were in Bruce Wayne’s office. You know I would have loved to have done that, but now I wouldn’t.”

He also had a scene built in his head for Deadman. “My favorite one was a chase,” del Toro said. “Deadman chasing, on a long chase, jumping from one body to the next. It would be an 80-year-old lady in Central Park running after the protagonist and then jumping into a traffic cop and a mounted cop. It was a really thrilling thing.”

The odds of seeing del Toro’s vision coming to life are pretty slim, despite the fact that he and James Gunn talk regularly. It seems Justice League Dark was conceptualized before Gunn took the helm for future DC films. “We talk. Now and then I write him about something else he’s doing right. I think he’s really remarkably smart. I love Superman, and I really enjoy the way he’s viewing the universe, but no. I mean the screenplay is there. It’s not chit-chat. It was a couple of years of development for that screenplay. We never got to the art, but it had great set pieces.”

It’s a real loss, because del Toro’s sensibilities are tailor-made for a macabre Justice League. Deadman and Constantine could’ve carried the same soulful strangeness he brought to Ron Perlman’s Hellboy and Doug Jones’ Abe Sapien, while Swamp Thing’s tragic love story with Abby Arcane practically begs for the lush, aching romanticism of The Shape of Water. Justice League Dark would’ve given del Toro a sandbox perfectly aligned with his strengths. We may never see his take on the team (J.J. Abrams is producing a series now...maybe?), but here’s hoping James Gunn finds a way to bring him into something just as weird, magical, and unmistakably del Toro in the new DCU.