Last night, WB Home Entertainment and DC Entertainment held a panel for their upcoming, highly-anticipated flick, Justice League Dark. It was announced at SDCC this year and suddenly, a featurette was leaked onto the Internet a few days later. It was exciting to see Jay Oliva at the helm with Matt Ryan reprising his role as John Constantine after he did so well on camera.
For those who don’t know, Justice League Dark is the arcane offshoot of the Justice League featuring superheroes steeped in the paranormal dealing with cases of the supernatural nature. Cases that the regular JL simply have no idea how to handle.
At the Justice League Dark panel, WB Entertainment PR, Gary Miereanu introduced Jason O’Mara, the voice of Batman, Matt Ryan, director Jay Oliva, producer James Tucker, and character designer Phil Bourassa. Four clips were shown for the upcoming film. Only two of which sounded interesting.
The first of which, set the plot up, showing chaos in the streets committed by regular civilians for no apparent reason. Wonder Woman believes it to be magic, to which Batman quickly denies, only to be paid a visit by Constantine at his home later on. The last clip that was shown featured Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, and Jason Blood going to summon Swamp Thing. The clip, unfortunately, ends before they reveal Swamp Thing himself.
A few interesting tidbits came out of the Q&A portion of the panel.
Jason O’Mara reflects on his take on the Batman:
“I don’t think it ever gets easier. I never, ever take it for granted. I approach each project on its own merits… because I want to make sure the voice keeps evolving and changing. There’s definitely been a progression from Justice League War to Justice League Dark… This isn’t a Batman who works alone. This is a Batman who has a complicated backstory and family baggage, which the other Batmen don’t quite have.”
There has been a progression and he does sound way more comfortable and confident as Batman than ever before. However, I’m not liking the fact that he feels his Batman is the only one who has family baggage. Every Batman, for the most part, has the same backstory. What exactly is he talking about?
O’Mara would later mention that Nick Turturro’s Deadman possesses Batman at some point. O’Mara relates with anecdote about how he “had to do Nick Turturro‘s voice but as Batman in my head.”
Regarding Ryan’s appearance as Constantine in Arrow, he mentions that “there’s always a possibility.”
A fan would later ask about the possibility of Lucifer appearing a future installment of the animated movies. James Tucker gave a very practical answer, simply asking folks to purchase this one, which would help pave the way for a sequel, ending with a “yeah, sure.”
Speaking of sequels, Jay Oliva mentioned wanting to include Spectre, should a sequel arise.
It was revealed, just as suspected, that Justice League Dark will be released in early 2017, and not in Fall 2016 as was claimed in the leaked featurette. However, no release date has been set.
Tucker ended the panel by briefly discussing WB Home Entertainment’s future slate rattling off a few in a steam-of-conscious manner. He mentioned Teen Titans: The Judas Contract offhandedly, but also mentioned that “Wonder Woman [is] on their radar in some form or fashion.”
“In some form or fashion”? That’s an intriguing way to put it. What else would it be if not a movie? And unfortunately, Wonder Woman’s 75th was this year, so they really should have done something to celebrate it while the year was going on. Granted, we did get to see the first time Wonder Woman has ever been on the big screen… and she was one of the highlights of the flick. However, they really could’ve done some interesting shorts similar to Batman a couple years ago.
I suppose criticizing would do no good and I should be excited for any Wonder Woman media.
Check out the rest of the panel recap at CBR.
Excited for Justice League Dark? Expect it some time in early 2017.