Todd McFarlane Says The SPAWN Reboot is Still Alive and Reveals Why He Hasn't Approved a Script Yet

The Spawnreboot is still being dragged through Hell with it’s long development process. Despite rumors that Blumhouse’s long-in-development movie had been shelved, Todd McFarlane says the project is still alive. The problem is the script still isn’t the Spawn movie he has in his head.

For fans who have been following this project through years of updates, delays, writers, and creative changes, that probably sounds painfully familiar. McFarlane knows the wait has been frustrating, but he doesn’t want to approve a screenplay just to get the movie made.

“We’re just still trying to get the script right,” McFarlane tells Dread Central. “I know it’s frustrating to everybody, especially me. I haven’t signed off because I just am not reading what I have in my head.”

The challenge appears to be finding the right balance between using decades of Spawn mythology and creating something that can stand on its own. McFarlane doesn’t want filmmakers completely reinventing his creation, but he’s equally uninterested in another straightforward adaptation of Al Simmons’ origin.

“What’s happening is people are either going too far off the reservation, or they’re being too loyal to it. To me, there’s nothing worse than somebody coming up to me going, ‘Hey, I’m going to do a Spawn movie, and I’m going to take your first five issues, and I’m going to redo the origin issue.’

“First off, we’ve already had that movie. And second off…There’re 380 issues of Spawn. I’m telling you right now, very little of the conversation would be the first five issues. I’ve got 380 chapters. Spawn is not defined by the first four or five chapters.”

That opens up a lot more material than another retelling of how Al Simmons became Spawn. McFarlane has spent decades expanding the mythology around the character, and he wants the reboot to dig into that larger world while also carving out its own identity.

His preferred approach also sounds far removed from the glossy superhero blockbuster formula. “It should just be really dark and gritty and unsettling.

“When I see examples like Obsession or Backrooms, you go, ‘The audience will consume this.’ We don’t need to do superhero. As a matter of fact… we should be trying to do something different because, again, we’re not going to have a $200 million budget like other superhero movies.”

That feels like the right territory for Spawn. He doesn’t need to be competing with massive comic book spectacles. The character comes with horror, demons, Hell, violence, and plenty of seriously messed-up imagery already baked into his DNA.

McFarlane announced in 2024 that the reboot would be titled King Spawn, suggesting the movie could pull at least some inspiration from the comic series of the same name. Its official synopsis reads:

“King Spawn further expands the Spawn Universe with a growing presence of Hell, Heaven, and Heroes here on Earth. A classic villain from Spawn's past has begun asserting his powers on Earth by corrupting as many souls as possible. And only Spawn knows that he even exists.”

The movie has been kicking around since 2017, and its creative team has changed considerably during that time. In 2022, Scott Silver, writer of Joker, Malcolm Spellman, known for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Captain America: New World Order, and Matthew Mixon joined the project as writers.

As far as we know, Jamie Foxx remains attached to play Al Simmons, although after such a long development process, it’s possible the casting situation has changed.

McFarlane once planned to direct the film himself, but he has since reconsidered whether that would be the best move as the project has attracted higher-profile talent.

“If we’ve got an A-list actor, A-list producers, A-list writers, then do you want to shoot for A-list directors, A-list cinematographers?” he said in a recent interview. “The answer is, ‘of course.’ Let’s keep the momentum going.”

Spellman has also talked about what Spawn meant to him growing up and what the writing team wants to preserve from McFarlane’s comics.

“I grew up in Berkeley, which is a comic book city. Todd McFarlane’s SPAWN character was always one of my favorites — a Black superhero that was no bullshit, he was cool and dealt with modern issues.

“Myself, Matt Mixon, and Scott Silver are pledged to honoring what Todd started and what SPAWN is at its core, delivering something that’s relevant and edgy and unlike any other superhero movie out there.”

Spawn was one of the biggest comic books of the 1990s, even though the character doesn’t have quite the same mainstream presence today. The 1997 live-action Spawn movie certainly didn’t give the character, his villains, or his mythology the treatment fans wanted. HBO’s Spawn animated series fared much better and remains worth seeking out.

So, King Spawn is still crawling its way through development. McFarlane simply isn’t willing to give the script his approval until it captures what he believes this movie needs to be. Considering how long fans have already been waiting, that means the reboot could still be a ways off, but at least it hasn’t been killed.

If they eventually crack the script and actually get this thing in front of cameras, a nasty, horror-driven Spawn movie that avoids trying to imitate a $200 million superhero blockbuster could be a pretty cool way to bring Al Simmons back to the big screen.