Guillermo del Toro has been riding high since winning Best Picture and Best Director for The Shape of Water. He has more creative freedom now, more than ever, to pursue his passion projects. These have included the noir Nightmare Alley, his Netflix series Cabinet of Curiosities, and now his stop-motion version of Pinocchio.
del Toro has dipped his toe in the world of comics before, with Hellboy, but he thinks it’s unlikely that he’ll want to be sucked up by Marvel or DC in the future. Speaking to ComicBook.com, del Toro was asked if he still wanted to pursue Justice League Dark, which is something he was planning some years ago. “Oh, I don’t know. My love for Swamp Thing, The Demon, knows no bounds, but I don’t know.”
He continued; “You don’t get a manicure from a big machine, that’s what I’ve learnt, you may lose a few fingers. So I don’t know if I want a manicure from a big machine. As Danny Glover would say, ‘I’m too old for this sh-t.'”
Now that James Gunn is in charge of the creative direction of DC, anything could happen. It looks like the hierarchy of power in the DC universe really is changing, as Dwayne Johnson predicted.
Marvel recently debuted their equivalent of Swamp Thing, Ted AKA Man-Thing in Werewolf by Night. Werewolf by Night teased that the Midnight Sons, who are the Marvel equivalent of Justice League Dark, could become a part of the MCU in the future.
Guillermo del Toro has a vast love for literature (eg. HP Lovecraft), comic books, old movies (eg. Creature from the Black Lagoon), and much more. He always has many projects on the backburner that he is planning or developing – most of which, unfortunately, never come to fruition.
We can’t wait to find out del Toro does next. In the meantime, check out our guide to the best monster movies.