Around the time Justice League hit theaters in 2017, M3GAN director Gerard Johnstone was working on a script for a Justice League Dark movie, and he's now shared some intriguing details on his take on the supernatural team - and why the plug was ultimately pulled.
Johnstone reveals that the roster would have been made up of Deadman, Swamp Thing, Constantine, and Zatanna, and the latter was emerging as the main character.
"There was a lot of the conversations and jostling I had with the guys," he tells Screen Rant, "because they were like, 'Constantine's the main character.' I was like, 'No, Constantine's kind of the coolest character. But Zatanna is really the main character.' Because she's discovering her magical powers for the first time. But it was fun, man. The characters all went to hell to get Zatanna's dad."
Johnstone's script was only about halfway complete when he got word that the studio had decided not to move forward with the project.
"It was just a tough time for DC, I think. It was just like Justice League came out, didn't do what they wanted it to do. Suicide Squad didn't do what they wanted to do. And so I was just told that they don't want to spend money on another new movie with a bunch of characters no one's heard of, and I understand that. It was a shame."
Is there a chance James Gun and Peter Safran might revisit Johnstone's script down the line? "I would love to meet James Gunn. I would love to sit down with James Gunn and talk about it, for sure," he adds.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams and his wife and Bad Robot partner, Katie McGrath, were set to head-up a Justice League Dark series for WarnerMedia's HBO Max streaming service, but that was also shelved after the DC Studios shake-up.
We know that a separate Swamp Thing movie from James Mangold is in the works and Keanu Reeves is (hopefully) set to reprise the role of Constantine for a sequel to his 2005 film, so maybe we will eventually see the JLD come together on the big screen.