Although Guillermo del Toro parted ways with Warner Bros. over his vision for Justice League Dark (aka Dark Universe), the studio is still reportedly planning on moving forward with del Toro’s script — but without (almost) everything else that would make it a del Toro film. The other day rumors began circulating about potential cast members, and now comes word that WB is eyeing possible directors for the project as well.

While WB couldn’t come to an agreement with del Toro on the casting and budget of the Justice League Dark movie, they did apparently like his script well enough to continue developing it without him. And if recent rumors are true, the studio still wants to cast Ron Perlman, who was del Toro’s pick for Swamp Thing.

According to JoBlo, not only is WB eyeing some potential stars, but they have a couple of directing choices in mind: Fede Alvarez, director of the Evil Dead remake, and Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, the directing duo behind Israeli crime thriller Big Bad Wolves. Those choices echo the ongoing trend of studios hiring filmmakers who have made an impression with smaller, lower-budget fare and putting them on ambitious blockbuster projects, to mixed results.

But these are also directors whose strength lies in darker genre fare, which gives you an idea of where WB is heading with Justice League Dark.

Del Toro previously revealed the Justice League Dark lineup to be Constantine, Zatanna, Swamp Thing, Dead Man and Jason Blood. Recent rumors suggest that WB is eyeing Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor for Constantine (with the studio considering giving one of them the role of Jason Blood instead), Ben Mendelsohn as baddie Anton Arcane, and Monica Bellucci for the mystical Madame Xanadu.

JoBlo’s report also confirms previous rumors that WB wants to begin filming the project early next year, and given the studio’s lengthier production schedules for their superhero outings, it would probably be 2018 or 2019 before we seen the finished product.

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