Justice League Darkis the newest reported cancelation for the DC franchise under Warner Bros. Discovery to ready for DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU. This news is unsurprising, as no information has been heard on the J.J. Abrams-produced project since its announcement almost 3 years ago.
Justice League Darkis a DC storyline featuring a team-up of dark arts DC characters specializing in the supernatural.Justice League Darkhas its movie debut in animation betweenJustice League DarkandJustice League Dark Apocalypse War. However, the big screen live-action cinematic adaptation would have been exciting to witness, with many possibilities on how it could have tied into the Darkseid invasion set up fromZack Snyder’s Justice Leagueor even as a standalone storyline under the DC Elseworlds label. DespiteGuillermo del Toro havingJustice League Darkideas, neither project was meant to be, as it is not part of the DCU reboot.
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The Hollywood Reporterstates that theDusterseries, one of the three J.J Abrams projects announced other thanJustice League Dark, was green-lit at HBO Max. “In April 2020,Dusterwas one of three Bad Robot projects announced for the yet-to-launch HBO Max, along withThe ShiningoffshootOverlookand aJustice League Darkproject. The latter two have since been scrapped.” Abrams' Bad Robot production company had signed a $500 million deal with WarnerMedia forAbrams to produce several DC films and series. However, that deal has amounted to more broken promises than not. Even Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has publicly expressed disappointment in being “frustrated by the lack of output.”
The list of other announced projects that have not moved forward under the Bad Robot and WarnerMedia deal is aMatt Reeves and Abrams' animated Batman series, aSupermanmovie, and aConstantineseries on HBO Max. Seeing as how management has changed under the Warner Bros and Discovery merger since then, it could allude to why the $500 million contract never amounted to much in the first place. This deal was also made before Gunn and Safran were granted control of the DC film franchise, meaning Abrams' developing projects likely didn’t fit their plan.
Fortunately, the Keanu Reeves sequelConstantine 2is moving forward under Warner Bros Picturesco-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy and producer Abrams, which Gunn and Safran don’t appear to be canceling, as it may be a one-off under the DC Elseworlds label since it wasn’t announced as part of DCU phase one. John Constantine would have been a fantastic start forJustice League Dark, similar to whatIron Manwas toThe Avengers. So, while it is unfortunate, audiences are promised a supposedly new and better DCU that will rise from its ashes.
