Todd McFarlane Seems Frustrated by Industry Resistance to SPAWN Reboot

One of the most hotly-anticipated yet nebulous upcoming horror release is the reboot of Spawn with the character’s creator and series mastermind Todd McFarlane at the helm. It’s something fans of the titular antihero have been begging for since the disastrous 1997 live-action film adaptation. And while it’s been a while since it was announced Blumhouse would produce the reboot, things seem to be going slowly.

Related Article: Todd McFarlane Wants His SPAWN Reboot to Make Little Kids Cry

And the slog seems to be wearing McFarlane down a bit, as he clearly seems frustrated by the film’s slow progress in a recent interview he gave with THR. There seems to be industry resistance, which is difficult for McFarlane (and the rest of us) to wrap our minds around in a world where superhero movies are supreme. In his own words:

“Putting the financing together and trying to convince the city that you can go into various corners of superhero movies genres. Venom is a perfect example, that you can take an ‘anti-hero character’ who was originally created as a villain and make them this sort of do-gooder. Even though he doesn’t play by the rules, you can make a billion dollars. I’m asking them, what’s the movie, whether it’s Deadpool or Guardians of the Galaxy or Suicide Squad or The Joker… Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil…which one is it that’s failing? None. So that’s what I’m trying to tell Hollywood. Why is Spawn going into a dark corner that doesn’t follow the norms? Why is that one going to be the odd fit that’s not going to swim upstream? Of course it will. If we keep the budget small, of course it will sell, and now we get to say, ‘From the co-creator of Venom’ on top of it. Cool.”

Spawn doesn’t have an exact release date, but its IMDB page still claims the project hopes to hit silver screens sometime in 2019—although I’m beginning to have doubts, personally. Time will tell. Spawn will star Jeremy Renner and Jamie Foxx. We’ll keep you posted as details emerge. Stay tuned!

For the uninitiated, Here’s a bit about Spawn’s pre-antihero existence, via Fandom:

Albert “Al” Francis Simmons was born in Detroit, Michigan as the second of three brothers (Marc, Al, and Richard) to Esther and Bernard Simmons. Simmons was a very gifted officer of the United States Marine Corps, where he attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He later joined the United States Secret Service, which led to his transfer to the Central Intelligence Agency. In the CIA, Simmons was recruited by Director Jason Wynn into a special top-secret covert ops division known as the U.S. Security Group, an elite task force with jurisdiction in all domestic and foreign situations.

Why do you think Todd McFarlane’s Spawn reboot is receiving industry resistance? Are you looking forward to seeing Spawn reborn? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

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