Justice League Dark is 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 Dark is a DC storyline featuring a team-up of dark arts DC characters specializing in the supernatural. Justice League Dark has its movie debut in animation between Justice League Dark and Justice 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 from Zack Snyder's Justice League or even as a standalone storyline under the DC Elseworlds label. Despite Guillermo del Toro having Justice League Dark ideas, neither project was meant to be, as it is not part of the DCU reboot.
The Hollywood Reporter states that the Duster series, one of the three J.J Abrams projects announced other than Justice League Dark, was green-lit at HBO Max. “In April 2020, Duster was one of three Bad Robot projects announced for the yet-to-launch HBO Max, along with The Shining offshoot Overlook and a Justice League Dark project. The latter two have since been scrapped.” Abrams' Bad Robot production company had signed a $500 million deal with WarnerMedia for Abrams 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 a Matt Reeves and Abrams' animated Batman series, a Superman movie, and a Constantine series 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 sequel Constantine 2 is moving forward under Warner Bros Pictures co-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 for Justice League Dark, similar to what Iron Man was to The Avengers. So, while it is unfortunate, audiences are promised a supposedly new and better DCU that will rise from its ashes.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter