In early 2017, it looked as though the Justice League Dark cameras would roll sometime in 2018. But just a few months later, Doug Liman stepped down as the movie’s director. And with no announcement from Warner Bros. about a successor, the project’s future may be up in the air.

We assume that the studio has encountered some difficulty in finding a suitable replacement for Liman, or that they’re simply taking their time with the DC Comics adaptation, which has been in the works since 2012. Maybe it would be wise to consider approaching Liman about coming back, especially since he’s shown some interest in doing so.

During a recent ScreenRant interview, Liman was asked whether he’d consider a return as the director of Justice League Dark – or even of another DC Films project – since Warner Bros. appointed a new leader for the banner. Liman’s response:

I would be open to it. I have a very kind of contrarian approach to how I make things, and I don't want to do them the way other people have done them. You know, Impulse is an original take on superpower – as you can imagine – and still be satisfying. Because obviously, there's some things…you can be original and artsy, and not"¦Part of the reason cliches exist is because they're satisfying to the audience, so my challenge as a filmmaker has always been to do something that's really original and still totally satisfying on a big commercial level, which I feel we've done with Impulse. I'd be really interested in doing that within the DC world if the right piece of material comes along.

We recently heard that the studio brought in Housebound writer/director Gerard Johnstone to polish the Justice League Dark script. A subsequent rumor suggested that Johnstone and director Daniel Espinosa (Life) were both in consideration to direct. But we’ve heard nothing more about it since that rumor first popped up in August 2017.

But it doesn’t appear likely that Doug Liman will make it back as Justice League Dark’s director. He’s currently working on Chaos Walking, which will arrive in theaters in 2019. After that, he’s expected to shoot the Edge of Tomorrow sequel Live Die Repeat and Repeat. With such a full plate, he could be out of the running, unless Warner Bros. is willing to delay the movie’s release by several years.

Do you think it’s likely that Doug Liman will return to direct Justice League Dark? Share via comments, and stay tuned for the latest updates!