Why Guillermo del Toro left Justice League Dark & his $120 million Hellboy 3

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Last month it was announced that Guillermo del Toro would be walking away from his JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK film, which would have featured a team of supernatural DC characters like John Constantine, Swamp Thing and Deadman. Sounds like SUICIDE SQUAD with a del Toro twist and it would have been right up his alley! So what gives? Well, it looks like it all boils down to a scheduling conflict. Those of you who aren't looking forward to the PACIFIC RIM sequel may not enjoy the following news.

Guillermo del Toro on why he left JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK:

Warners liked the script, they were very enthusiastic and wanted to green-light it but they wanted it to coincide with the shoot of PACIFIC RIM 2. I was put in a very difficult place facing a difficult choice, and I chose to do PACIFIC RIM 2.

Regarding HELLBOY 3:

The hard fact is that the movie’s going to need about $120 million and there’s nobody knocking down our doors to give it to us. It’s a little beyond Kickstarter. It would be great to complete the trilogy, but in a way I don’t see the world — the industry — supporting that idea. But you know, Ron is no spring chicken, so we’d better get to it before Hellboy has to do everything from a Barcalounger. I would watch that.

Given that del Toro generally takes advantage of his "shoestring" budgets, I'm surprised he's locked HELLBOY 3 in at $120 million. I mean, I'm not going to pretend that the series doesn't feature action, special effects and some amazing creatures for Ron Perlman to punch the crap out of, but a part of me wouldn't mind a smaller, more intimate tale. The red guy aside, I loved PACIFIC RIM and have no qualms about the man choosing to do a sequel over Swamp Thing and Friends. Here's hoping it's as much of a ride as the first one was!

Guillermo del Toro's next picture, CRIMSON PEAK, hits theaters on October 16, 2015.