Justice League Dark seems to finally be making its way into production with the help of Bad Robot.
According to Deadline, J.J. Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, has exclusive development rights with Warner Media, to develop movie and television properties based on the Justice League Dark characters. Deadline also points out that this development is so new that the decision about what characters get the spotlight hasn’t even been decided yet. But the decisions on characters will be made over the next few weeks.
Justice League Dark is a comic series that focuses on the mystical and horror side of the DC Universe. It has some rather well known characters like John Constantine, Zatanna, Swamp Thing, Jason Blood aka the Demon Etrigan, and Boston Brand to name a few. These characters form a superhero team that defends the Earth from magical threats, threats that Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman can’t really handle.
This part of the universe hasn’t really been tapped for film, but has been used several times in television as both Constantine and Swamp Thing received their own shows. Both shows ended up being canceled for one reason or another. There is one straight to video-on-demand animated movie called Justice League Dark as well.
Warner Bros. has been doing amazing on the horror front over the past few years. Warner Bros. has successfully launched their own horror cinematic universe using The Conjuring franchise. Warner Bros. has done so well with their horror brand that many of the talented people working on horror has moved over to their DC movies branch. Those talented people include James Wan, David F. Sandberg, and Andy Muschietti. With horror being part of the new Warner Bros. brand, this piece of news doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Combining horror and superheroes might prove fruitful at the box office.
It has appeared that although DC has seems to be trying a new lighter approach with films like Aquaman and Shazam, films like Joker seem to have shown the executives at Warner Bros. that there is an audience for any superhero movie that is new and different, and above all, good.
Since Bad Robot is developing this property there is a very good chance that J.J. Abrams might end up directing one of these films, or being a show-runner for one of these television shows, as he has done in the past. There is a good chance that this new untapped, darker side of the DC Universe, could prove to be the answer to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Especially, Etrigan, he seems like he could be quite the hit with audiences.
