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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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Variety has announced that Warner Brothers recently tapped director Doug Liman to helm their “Justice League Dark” film. Michael Gilio will be penning the script, with Scott Rudin producing.

What do we know about the film so far?

This film has been in the works since 2012, back when it was titled “Heaven Sent” and Guillermo del Toro was set to direct. He stepped away from the project in 2015 after a long back-and-forth about whether or not DC wanted to include the movie in their current continuity. Now it seems that the project will be fully in line with the DC Cinematic Universe, and that the script will focus on John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Deadman, Zatanna, and Etrigan the Demon.

Justice League Dark was launched in 2011 as part of the New 52 reboot, and differed from the Justice League due to the group’s ability to tackle supernatural-type phenomena. Given that the group is made up of a slew of antiheroes and odd folks, Justice League Dark might bring the ambiguity and heft to DC films that Suicide Squad was meant to bring. There are plenty of ways for these characters to get engaged with occult mysteries, especially with Enchantress about post-Squad; the witch’s separatation from her host, archaeologist June Moon, is actually what causes the formation of the Justice League Dark–magic starts going wild all over the world as a result of their disunion.

Oddly, the only woman cited in the crew’s lineup is magician Zatanna. Which is unfortunate, given that the Justice League Dark has had plenty of female members, including Raven, Black Orchid, and Pandora. Madame Xanadu was also a member, a character with super-fun ties to Arthurian legend and a lot of fun backstory to sift through.

Did I mention that she formed the group in comics canon? Yeah. So it’s sort of awkward to see her name left out. (And weirdly mirrors how Mina Murray was sidelined as the founder of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman when it made its way to film.)

On the other hand, we get to ask who will get cast for these roles! They’re all a blast to speculate about, but could I put in an early vote for someone actually middle-aged for Constantine? No offense to anyone who enjoying the current TV version, but I prefer my Constantine’s older and way more grizzled and messed up. It’s part of his… charm. Or something.

About the Author

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Emmet Asher-Perrin

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Emmet Asher-Perrin is the News & Entertainment Editor of Reactor. Their words can also be perused in tomes like Queers Dig Time Lords, Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction. They cannot ride a bike or bend their wrists. You can find them on Bluesky and other social media platforms where they are mostly quiet because they'd rather to you talk face-to-face.
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