Abandoned Concept Art For Justice League Dark Shows Us What Could’ve Been

There are a lot of DC projects over at Warner Bros. that don’t seem to be able to catch a break, but one of the most beleaguered (pun definitely intended) is Justice League Dark. The supernatural-themed superhero movie has traded hands with at least two directors so far, with both of them eventually passing on the pic.

While we did get an animated effort based on the team, fans are still eager to see what DC’s occult heroes would be like in live-action. While there’s no word on the film getting off the ground soon, some concept art from the 2015 version of the movie, that would have been helmed by Guillermo del Toro, has now arrived online, giving us a look at what could’ve been.

Justin Fields, of Ironklad Studios, has shared these designs for the Justice League Dark’s six team members – namely, John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Zatanna, Deadman, Floronic Man and Jason Blood. In the case of the humanoid characters, known actors have been “cast” in the roles. Beauty and the Beast‘s Dan Stevens is Constantine, Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) is Zatanna and Doctor Strange star Chiwetel Ejiofor is Blood.

Though these designs likely won’t ever see the light of day now, even if the project is reignited, it’s still interesting to see what del Toro had in mind. Swamp Thing, in particular, is impressive and very faithful to the comics. And Ejiofor would have made an awesome Jason Blood, who transforms into the rhyming demon Etrigan.

The looks of Constantine and Zatanna, meanwhile, are a bit off. Dormer’s sorceress looks more like Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn than the comic book character and Stevens’ Constantine appears to be cosplaying as David Tennant’s Doctor Who.

The last update we had on Justice League Dark is actually a positive one, as it was featured on a line-up of incoming DCEU movies that WB unveiled last week. This makes it clear that the studio is still very keen to push forward with the project. The difficult thing seems to be just finding a director who’s willing to make it. As always, though, we’ll keep you posted as more comes to light.