Dark Universe, exploring the supernatural side of DC Comics, is in development as a feature by director Doug Liman, but fans will get their first look at some of its potential team members with the animated film Justice League Dark, being released on Blu-ray and for digital download in early 2017. And which just happens to be the recipient of a new trailer.
Over the course of the film, Batman (voiced by Jason O’Mara) is drawn into the world of the occult by Deadman (Nicholas Turturro), which in turn leads him to the likes of Jason Blood/Etrigan (Ray Chase), Felix Faust (Enrico Colantoni), Zatanna (Camilla Luddington), Destiny (Alfred Molina) and John Constantine (Matt Ryan, reprising his role from the live action Constantine series).
Director Jay Oliva, who also directed the two-part animated adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns, feels that the strength of Justice League Dark is that they’re dealing with a different kind of team than fans might be used to, particularly in terms of genre. “I wanted to do a horror film more than just the usual superhero film,” he explains. “It’s still an action film, but I wanted to have horror elements and really play up the supernatural aspect. The other thing was that if you’ve seen my films, I usually have highly choreographed fight sequences, and now I was thinking, ‘What do I do with that now with the magic aspect?’ I love Final Fantasy and video games and anime, so I looked at all of my references and thought, 'This is what they did, now how do I bring that to the DC Universe to do something really different that’s pushed? That maybe DC fans have never seen before, at least not in this context, and bring that to these characters?' Because of magic, anything goes, which is very freeing to me.”
Obviously very freeing, considering that in America the film has been hit with an "R" rating, the only DC animated film besides Batman: The Killing Joke to do so.