The news that Sandman would move from Warner Bros. to New Line, along with other potential movies developed from Vertigo Comics titles, also had a related piece of information. For a couple years Guillermo del Toro has been developing Justice League Dark, a team film that would incorporate characters like John Constantine and Swamp Thing. At first we assumed that project would also move to New Line.

But Justice League Dark is staying at Warner Bros., the better to keep characters who are primarily DC heroes in house. Thing is, Guillermo del Toro is no longer developing it.

THR features some reporting that adds details to the situation. The site says,

Justice League Dark, which is also known as Dark Universe, will remain under the Warners banner. Darkconsists of DC’s supernatural heroes such as Constantine, Swamp Thing, Zatanna, and Deadman among others. In the past, Constantine and Swamp Thing and some of those ilk had their own titles published under the Vertigo imprint but have since been integrated into the DC Universe. The movie version will attempt the same.

But according to THR’s sources, Guillermo del Toro, “is no longer attached to the project.” The director will have Crimson Peak out in October, after which he’ll start the real work of making a Pacific Rim sequel.

Given how quiet news on this project has been, and the other movies on the director’s plate, it isn’t surprising to hear he’s off the film. We’d more or less assumed as much, but the confirmation helps us understand the situation.

Rumors of a third Hellboy movie have also cropped up again just as news comes of del Toro walking away from Justice League Dark. The coincidence may not be indicative of anything — we have no concrete info on Hellboy 3 at this point — but it’s the sort of confluence of events that may end up making a lot more sense down the line.

Even since the first announcements of development, Justice League Dark has seemed like a longshot. It’s pretty far outside the parameters of what DC and WB seem to be building, and it features characters are are much less mainstream than the big DC heroes. We’d love to see it, but at this point it doesn’t seem like it is the biggest priority at the studio.