Spawn creator Todd McFarlane made it crystal clear that the upcoming Spawn movie will be a “dark, ugly two hours worth of movie.”
McFarlane, who is not only the creator of Spawn, but will be directing the upcoming movie, spoke to Nerdist about the project and went into detail about what fans can expect from the upcoming film.
“There’s no joy. There’s gonna be no fun lines in it, and it’s just gonna be this dark, ugly two hours worth of movie, which is essentially what a lot of supernatural/horror movies are anyway. There’s not a lot of funny in them. And that seems to be a weird hurdle for a lot of people in this city to get over because they sort of go into a superhero/Avengers default all the time.”
This isn’t the first time McFarlane has expressed that he intends to make Spawn a dark film. Last March, McFarlane spoke at Emerald City Comic Con stating, “Listen, I’m going to paint it for you. The movie is going to be a dark R…If here’s PG-13 and here’s Deadpool and here’s Logan, we’re going to be here. It’s going to be dark. It’s going to be nasty.”
McFarlane would elaborate in an interview with ComicBook.com in June. He specifically pointed out that he doesn’t intend to sell toys with Spawn describing it as a “true drama.”
“Well, you know, I’m gonna do some simple stuff that isn’t with the norm. … Even just going R-rated takes it out of the PG-13 category. Now, with it being R, we’ve now seen a couple of examples of that. Deadpool and Logan seem to be. Venom, I think Venom is gonna be R-rated. So, I’m hoping that our category succeeds. So that it will broaden the thought process of the studio executives to go, ‘Oh, it doesn’t have to be something onscreen that sells a bunch of toys and T-shirts.’ It can just be a something that’s a little more gritty.
For me, I know that I’m at the far end of R. Like, true drama, dark, serious R. I’m treating it as a real movie, minus the one thing that’s in there that will be fantastic with this R. So, minus that, everything is gritty. There are no arch villains. There’s no headquarters. There are no big ray guns. There are none of some of the trappings that we’re used to in some of the other big movies.”
Not only has McFarlane made it clear he intends to make a dark, grisly film, but rumored plot details indicate he’s not boasting. The film is expected to showcase gang violence as NYPD detective Twitch Williams begins a quest for revenge after his daughter is murdered. However, he’ll quickly find he might have bitten off more than he can chew as two of the largest criminal organizations make a bid to consolidate their power and take over the criminal underworld.
Given McFarlane’s approach, Spawn will be in sharp contrast to Marvels’ lighter approach and DC’s more recent Aquaman installment. While some of DC’s movies have been darker, they were more hero-centric compared to the information released about the upcoming Spawn movie.
Oscar award-winning actor Jamie Fox will take on the title role of Al Simmons, aka Spawn. Joining him is Marvel alum, Jeremy Renner. Renner will play the story’s main character Detective Twitch Williams in his quest for vengeance.
The Spawn reboot is also bringing in some other heavy guns on the FX side of things. KNB EFX Group has been brought in. The film has also brought in legendary special make-up artist Gero Nicotero, who has worked on projects such as The Walking Dead.
Spawn is expected to begin filming this summer around June.
What do you think? Were you a fan of the 90s Spawn film? And are you looking forward to this take on Spawn on the big screen? Let me know in the comments below!