Comic book writer Todd McFarlane has provided yet another promising update on the development of the upcoming Spawn reboot, revealing that progress on the long-awaiting project is getting "hot and heavy." Speaking on the Comicbook Nation podcast, McFarlane commended the likes of Venom and Joker for introducing wider audiences to the idea of a comic book antihero leading a tentpole blockbuster.
"I think that anytime any of those have success, I think it began a little bit with what Venom did. Because, he's sort of an anti-hero and then really got turbocharged with Joker. Now, like you're saying, the iteration of Batman and Moon Knight we're seeing. That there is a hunger there. That everything doesn't have to quite go down to the seven-year-old level."
The proposed Spawn reboot has been in development for quite some time, and while there has been very little in terms of major updates, McFarlane believes that the huge success of Venom and Joker, as well as the recent The Batman and Marvel’s upcoming Moon Knight, will help him finally bring Spawn back to the big screen.
His description of the work on Spawn being “hot and heavy” is just the latest optimistic update regarding the project. Producer Jason Blum recently provided an equally promising update regarding the reboot, stating that the project is still in active development and that he and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane are just taking their time to get the script just right.
"It's gonna be very different, it's gonna be very edgy,” Blum said of their approach. “What excited me about it is that Spawn is kind of the last great unexploited comic. So that seemed like an amazing opportunity. It's taken longer than I hoped it would have to get the story right, but we're still working on it."
The Spawn Reboot Will Not Re-Tell the Character’s Origin
Spawn, who begins life as an assassin named Albert Francis Simmons before being murdered and making a deal to become a Hellspawn, has adapted for the screen before back in 1997. In an effort to differentiate the reboot from what has come before, McFarlane has revealed that the movie will not re-tread the character’s origin.
"I didn't want to do the comic book origin story from issues #1-3 in the movie,” McFarlane, who plans to make his directorial with Spawn, revealed. “We were looking for people, without even telling them that, to give something a little bit different. Unfortunately, 80 to 90 percent of them, according to the other person involved who was interviewing most of them, were falling into the trap of retelling the comic book story in the movie. We saw that movie. That movie came out 20-plus years ago from New Line. So what haven't we seen that would be interesting and relevant today, both in terms of filmmaking and social content."
Set to star Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx as the titular Spawn alongside Avengers: Endgame star Jeremy Renner, could we at long last see the Spawn reboot begin to take shape?