To say that Todd McFarlane’s Spawn reboot has spent far too long languishing in development hell would be to deal in serious understatement.
But after years of false starts, McFarlane and his team are finally ready to set the wheels in motion now, no thanks to the recent casting of Jamie Foxx as Albert Francis “Al” Simmons, the luckless Black Ops operative who winds up making a deal with Malebolgia in order to escape the clutches of death and return home to his fiancée, Wanda Blake. That is, in a nutshell, the elevator pitch for Blumhouse and Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, and now that they’ve located their leading man, it’s time to fill out the rest of the cast.
Though further additions have yet to be announced, That Hashtag Show claims that Jeremy Renner, he of Avengers fame, is in talks with the studio to play the human lead, detective Twitch Williams. It’s unclear if this is a done deal just yet, but the actor’s involvement is certainly exciting to learn about and we’re hopeful that both parties are able to come to an agreement to make this happen.
Current rumors are that, contrary to what folks might expect, Spawn won’t actually feature too much of its titular character, instead focusing on a group of cops struggling to process the arrival of a monstrous avenging presence on the streets alongside them. It’s said that Spawn will be more effective if we see other people’s reactions to him, in a similar manner to how Spielberg treats the shark in Jaws. And according to McFarlane, audiences are going to be immediately sold once they see the visuals he’s cooking up:
“What’s gonna matter is, really, the first time they get to watch the trailer. And then, once you watch the trailer, then all the talking’s over. Because, now, they’re gonna see it. And then, at that point, they’re gonna go, ‘Oh, that’s either interesting or curious. I might give it a chance.’ Or, they’re gonna go, ‘Yeah, you know what, I was hoping for something a little more, you know, Marvel-like.’ They’re gonna visually see it. I’m not gonna be tricking anybody by saying, ‘Hey, come to my movie. It’s superhero extravaganza,’ then do a dark movie behind their back. They’re gonna see the trailer. Might even do three or four trailers. They’re gonna see lots and lots of this. So, everybody will be personally educated as to whether they wanna walk into the theater and give it a chance by the time the movie gets there.”
There’s still no concrete release date for when we may see the long gestating reboot on theater screens, but the undead Albert Simmons has been waiting an awful long time for his return to the big leagues. And as soon as we get any further updates on Jeremy Renner’s involvement with Spawn, or any other developments for that matter, we’ll be sure to let you know.