Spawn Reboot Will Trade Humor For A “Dark And Ugly” Supernatural Adventure

It’s been a long time coming – too long, perhaps – but a Spawn movie reboot is finally on the horizon. Oh, and it’ll be R-rated, too.

Seasoned comic book scribe Todd McFarlane is in the driving seat, and recently spoke to Nerdist (h/t ComicBook.com) about the amount of fun and humor included in his supernatural romp – or lack thereof. Yes, it seems the forthcoming Spawn movie will trade comedy for a “dark and ugly” adventure, one in which Jamie Foxx’s Albert Simmons, a former United States Marine, transforms into the titular hellspawn.

It’s a demonic mutation we’ve seen before, of course, given Michael Jai White previously portrayed the infamous character. But this time around, it seems McFarlane and his team are wanting to keep things on the straight and narrow. Which is to say Spawn will be overly faithful to its comic book roots.

There’s no joy. There’s gonna be no fun lines in it, and it’s just gonna be this dark, ugly two hours worth of movie, which is essentially what a lot of supernatural/horror movies are anyway. There’s not a lot of funny in them. And that seems to be a weird hurdle for a lot of people in this city to get over because they sort of go into a superhero/Avengers default all the time.

Ever since he was introduced to the comic book world in ’92, Spawn has gone on to become something of a cult favorite, and there is perhaps no one more suited to the movie project than Todd McFarlane, who’s been deeply involved with the famed anti-hero since his inception.

Whether McFarlane is able to do good on his promise of a “dark and ugly” Spawn movie will be told in time, but at least so far, everything is looking very, very promising.