Justice League Dark is DC Comics and Warner Bros. next film in their well-received animated universe as the team explores the magic corner of the DC Universe in 2017.
Bringing in Matt Ryan to reprise his role as Constantine with a team of magic-based characters is a big deal but adding Batman to the cast (voiced by Jason O’Mara) brings more weight to the film and to the team as a whole.
Batman’s role in Justice League Dark was a point brought up to producer James Tucker at a New York Comic Con press roundtable.
“He represents the everyman who doesn’t believe in magic or doesn’t want to believe in magic. The audience who is not familiar with these characters needs a touchstone to pull them into the story. And for Batman, for good or ill, everyone knows Batman. They know who he is, how he thinks and what he’s all about,” Tucker said. “So for him, they follow everyone else on this journey because of him and eventually the characters are so strong that Batman doesn’t dominate the movie at all. He’s just an entry into these characters, and he’s there to give a running comment as a non-believer who even though he sees all this happening he’s still skeptical.”
Fans of the DC magic universe shouldn’t worry though. Even with Batman being along for the ride, Tucker assured us his inclusion in Justice League Dark is more of a storytelling element for the rest of the DC animated universe and won’t overshadow the real stars of the film.
“He does represent the audience but again, he doesn’t dominate the movie at all. He fits just right. It’s not a thing where Batman does all the stuff and he’s better than all the other characters that sometimes, accidentally, happens in other Justice Leagues. He’s in over his head and he knows it and it’s almost a funny commentary of how Batman is pretty much useless in this world.”
The Justice League Dark team (outside of Batman) includes Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, The Demon Etrigan and two other characters that Tucker is excited for.
“We all agreed that we wanted to get Swamp Thing into this movie. That was not hard, so I’m very excited about him. I’m a big fan of Black Orchid and that was a harder sell because [comic book readers] don’t remember her very much and her origin wasn’t very clear,” Tucker said. “So we kind of cobbled together elements from all throughout her history and came up with our own reason for her for being involved. So she is my personal favorite, but Swamp Thing is going to be the crowd pleaser.”
Fans of DC Comics and, in particular, the magical/occult corner of the DCU know that there are a lot of magical heroes that are not in Justice League Dark.
Some of the characters like Constantine and Zatanna were no-brainers for the team, but were there other characters that almost made the cut? Tucker’s response leaves hope for more stories to be told with the magical team.
“The Spectre to me is the king of all the supernatural but he kind of dictates, he’s a huge character and he literally sometimes, he would kind of dominate a story unless there was a really good reason for others to get involved it would be kind of hard to just stick him in there,” Tucker said. “But hopefully if we do another [ Justice League Dark movie], we find a reason to get him in there. There’s a lot of other supernatural second-tier characters that will be good for the team. I would love to bring Doctor Fate into it, too.”
Justice League Dark will release sometime in 2017.
So what do you think of Batman being in the Justice League Dark movie and the omissions on the team? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
