James Gunn responds to Justice League Dark rolling into the DCU

James Gunn has recently posed the question of introducing Justice League Dark in a steadily reformed DCU franchise.

James Gunn, the newly-appointed Co-CEO and Co-Chairman of DC Studios under Warner Bros. Discovery, has reacted to the idea of Justice League Dark becoming part of the DCU.

On Twitter, Adam Barnhardt of ComicBook.com asked Gunn about the potential of characters such as Etrigan and Swamp Thing among other members of the supernatural team integrating within the DC Universe. Gunn simply replied, “Why not.”

Gunn and fellow Co-CEO and Co-Chairman Peter Safran, entered their new roles on Nov. 1. Following the rebrand of DC Films into DC Studios on Oct. 25, Gunn who now oversees film, TV, animation, and video game projects under the DC label has been working on a series bible they plan to submit to Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, encompassing a 10-year-plan.

Troubled Development History of Justice League Dark

Here is a cliff-notes version of the entire development history thus far of the live-action film adaptation of Justice League Dark.

In 2012, rumors circle around that Guillermo del Toro film titled Heaven Sent featured Justice League Dark characters with the likes of Deadman, Swamp Thing, and Constantine. Months later in March 2013 at WonderCon, whilst promoting Pacific Rim, he confirmed this, revealing the actual working title to be Dark Universe. That it was in early development and he was in search of a screenwriter to be attached to the project.

Before Man of Steel was released as part of the DC Extended Universe, del Toro confirmed the writing was still in progress. By 2014, the script was submitted to Warner Bros. for a review then del Toro stated a script revision was handed in with the option to direct. By June 2015, however, the director was no longer attached to the project.

Weeks after the release of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad in the fall of 2016, Doug Liman was tapped to direct with del Toro and Scott Rudin producing and Michael Gilio writing. Eventually, Liman departed the project to focus on Chaos Walking in 2017.

That same year, the animated film version of Justice League Dark starring Matt Ryan, Jason O’Mara, Rosario Dawson, Camilla Luddington, Nicholas Turturro, and Ryan Chase dropped as part of the DC Animated Movie Universe. It was a success, praised for its dark adventure, supernatural elements, and depiction of DC’s shadowy heroes.

The animated 2017 film was notable for Ryan reprising his role from the NBC Constantine series. Ryan eventually became a part of the Arrowverse on the small screen, reprising the role on Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. The DCAMU film was followed by the 2020 sequel, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, which also received positive reviews and massive sales.

J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot and Warner Bros. deal

In Sept. 2019, J.J. Abrams inked a contract under his production company – Bad Robot Productions – with WBD (then WarnerMedia) for an overall five-year $500 M deal to produce film, shows, video games, and digital media. He expressed interest in producing a project focused on the aforesaid dark, paranormal team, releasing individual DC shows of the JLD characters before an ensemble series Marvel’s Defenders style.

Since 2020, Abrams, unfortunately, went through growing pains as between the Black Superman reboot, Constantine, Madame X, and his original sci-fi drama series, Demimonde, Abrams had three years into his deal with nothing to show for it.

Abrams is in another predicament like back at Paramount where his projects are at risk of being blocked. Constantine and Demimonde were axed and Batman: Caped Crusader is potentially being licensed to other streamers. Here at Warner Bros/DC Studios, the buck stops here with Gunn and Safran.

What are your thoughts on James Gunn’s reaction to Justice League Dark possibly coming to the DCU and do you think they would be done justice? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!