Spawn Animated Movie with Keith David & Mark Hamill Ready: McFarlane

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Spawn Animated Movie with Keith David & Mark Hamill Ready: McFarlane

Spawn creator Todd McFarlane discusses an animated movie with voice work from Keith David and Mark Hamill that's pretty much ready to go.

Published Sun, 26 Jul 2026 09:40:10 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• Todd McFarlane says an unreleased Spawn animated movie is nearly ready, with Keith David and Mark Hamill onboard.
• The 90-minute Spawn project is fully voiced and mostly developed, needing Foley and final animation to move ahead.
• McFarlane says he bought the Spawn animated film back after a production dispute, and it has been waiting in a box.
• McFarlane shared how Mark Hamill found Twitch’s voice by dropping the cartoon style and playing the detective straight.

It's been 27 years since the revolutionary HBO adult animated series Spawn aired its final episode; it's a legacy that has remained with creator Todd McFarlane ever since, as it became a signature role for Keith David and has long been embraced by fans as the most definitive and grittiest adaptation of his comic. While he's been trying to get Al Simmons back on the live-action film screen since the 1997 Michael Jai White-starred PG-13 film with a reboot, the legendary artist revealed to ComicBook.com there's already a project in the can in the form of an unreleased animated film that starred the President Curtis star and co-stars Mark Hamill, who plays Det Twitch Williams, originally voiced by Michael McShane in the HBO series.

Spawn Creator Todd McFarlane Reveals Details on Unreleased Animated Film

Not only did McFarlane reveal his two signature stars, but he also said the project is fully voiced. When asked if he considered doing a comics sequel to the 1997 Mark A.Z. Dippé film or the HBO series, "No, not really, because I'd rather do the sequels on screen. Sure, you're like going, okay, let's just get more animation out, right, and let's do the follow-up of the animation on it, because I don't know if I've ever said, we developed, we were in the process of developing the return of this Spawn animation a while back," McFarlane said. "And then we, I got in a fight at the very end with the production and the lawyer, so I just bought it all back."

According to McFarlane, all that's needed is some post-production work: "So I actually have a 90-minute animated show that's all been drawn, minus the cells. All the voices have been done. Everything, like, we're ready. All we need is a little bit of Foley, which is sound effects and stuff, and then hand it to a studio to actually draw, right? We're like, it's just been sitting in a box waiting to go. I have just been sitting on that going, no, I think I need to get like the movie out, and then boom, once the movie comes out, if there's any success, then come out with that, but it's sitting there. So anybody that wants to do animation, the first thing I'm going to do is say, hey, I've got this ready to tee up. We could get there real fast if we just take what's in this box right now because I bought it all back."

As far as how McFarlane wanted Hamill to approach his role, "Yes, and Mark Hamill. Let me tell you the Mark Hamill story. So Mark Hamill plays Twitch. He's one of the detectives, right, and that's so cool, but Mark Hamill, like I'm going way back. I'm sure you remember, this is when he's just starting to do animated voiceover," he said. "And he's sitting in the booth, and he starts doing his animated stuff, and I'm like, no, that's not it. You just need to relax, and basically I was hiring actors to act, and then he'd do his me, me, me. And it was like, no, no, I just need you. And after about 15 minutes of me rejecting him, right, finally he just went, oh my God, Todd. So what do you want me to do? And I'm like, that's the voice."

Hamill, best known for his work in the Star Wars franchise, developed far more opportunities in the voiceover world, most specifically as the maniacal Joker since Batman: The Animated Series. He rarely ever uses his regular voice in the roles. "He's like, that's my regular voice in my mind. That's what I've been saying. I just want you to act. I didn't hire you for a cute voice. I hired you, Mark Hamill, to act this voice, like, just read the lines like you were an actor and a tired detective," McFarlane said. "Yeah, and I played him, like, a few messages from a lawyer. I knew that was sort of a little bit melancholy when he talked. Yeah, and I go, if you want to slow it down a little bit, and then he went, 'so I just talk like me. That's it', and he nailed it after that. That was easy because I'm just, I'm being Mark. All right. Ding ding ding ding ding ding."

Spawn, based on the Image Comic of the same name, ran for three seasons from 1997 to 1999, and follows special forces Al Simmons, a decorated soldier who served in multiple branches of the Armed Forces, who is murdered and returns to Earth after swearing allegiance in Hell to serve Malebolgia in a deal in exchange of seeing his wife (voice of Dominique Jennings) and child (voice of Kath Soucie) again, not knowing how much time has passed and how she's moved on and married his best friend (voice of John Rafter Lee). He's also left permanently scarred and changed physically as the Hellspawn, trying to recruit new souls for Hell's army. With the Clown (voice of Michael Nicolosi) keeping an eye on Spawn, making sure he remains on task, Al finds Nicholas Cogliostro (voice of Richard Dysart), who knows the secrets of his abilities, allows him to retain whatever humanity is left as a vigilante to protect the streets, and gives him renewed purpose despite his new reality. For more on why McFarlane believes David is his definitive voice of Spawn, you can check out the entire interview. Stay tuned to Bleeding Cool for your SDCC coverage.

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