I’ve got to hand it to DC Universe. Back when the Titans press shots were released, I immediately wrote the whole thing off as a bad idea. But then Titans kicked ass. Following that, they scratched my Grant Morrison fan itch with the excellent Doom Patrol and it looks like they’re going to do the same for my Alan Moore obsession with Swamp Thing.
Last week we saw a teaser trailer for the series, showing the titular thing rising up out of a, you guessed it, swamp. From what we could see of the character, the costume was pretty decent. But now, courtesy of some new promo images, we’ve got an even better look, and it’s great.
I’ve got to hand it to whoever’s designed and built this suit, as it appears pretty comic-accurate to me. I was a bit concerned when they announced that the costume would be practical rather than CGI (mainly because it gave me flashbacks to the crappy 1980s movie adaptations), but it looks like they’ve hit it out of the park.
Underlying all this good news is a sense of unease, though. Just as the teaser dropped we also learned that Warner Bros. had unexpectedly reduced the series’ episode count from 13 to 10. That’s the kind of news you’d expect to hear from a show that’s not doing so great, and doing it in the middle of the shoot is never a good sign. Naturally, the cast and crew aren’t happy, with actress Virginia Madsen saying the following in a (quickly deleted) Instagram post:
“I’m beyond sad. What a terrible decision. We have been cut to the core by those who have never set foot into the Swamp. And despite the rule I am going to use the hashtag. #swampthing.”
So, what could this mean? Is Warner Bros. rethinking the whole DC Universe plan? Were the rushes they saw cause for concern? Is the show simply too expensive to warrant a 13-episode run? I guess we’ll find out when Swamp Thing arrives on May 31st.