Despite being in development for what feels like an eternity, movement on Todd McFarlane’s Spawn reboot has been agonizingly slow. Jamie Foxx remains attached to the title role, and still seems intent to play it despite boasting a jam-packed schedule for the foreseeable future, but Blumhouse remain committed to making it happen.
The horror hit factory’s head honcho Jason Blum says it’s still definitely on the table, but some fans are starting to get a little tired of McFarlane constantly hyping major announcements that never seem to arrive. If he’s not teasing a big addition to the cast that doesn’t materialize, then he’s touting that an reveal is coming in mid-2021, which turned out to have nothing to do with the movie after an episodic spinoff was confirmed instead.
Finally, someone else has contributed to the Spawn discourse after special effects and makeup legend Greg Nicotero offered some new details about his contributions to the project, and how McFarlane told him he’s looking for a gritty feel, with the work of David Fincher named as a surprising point of reference.
“We have designs. McFarlane came in, and he said, ‘Look, we’re doing this thing, and it’s going to be low budget, and it’s kind of down and dirty. And I want it to feel more like the animated show, where it’s like Spawn meets David Fincher’. He wanted to do this kind of gritty down and dirty thing. And so, we did a lot of concept work here. We did a bunch of design busts and a lot of really, really cool stuff. And then it kind of stalled.”
Michael Jai White, who played the character in the original 1997 cult favorite, sounds skeptical about the reboot as well, even if he’s open to the idea of a cameo appearance if there’s enough fan demand to justify it. As things stand, though, Spawn is still nothing more than a succession of ifs, buts and maybes, and we’re fast reaching a point where genuine updates signaling that things are progressing would be ten times more surprising than McFarlane telling everyone about the big plans he’s got in store before we get months of nothing but radio silence.