Joker and Captain America 4 Writers to Pen Spawn Reboot

Spawn finally appears to be nearing his long-awaited big screen resurrection from Blumhouse Productions. The Jamie Foxx-led film reboot for the Image Comics antihero has shown new signs of life with the announcement by creator Todd McFarlane that the script will now be penned by a trio of new writers: Scott Silver (Joker), Malcolm Spellman (Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Captain America: New World Order), and Matthew Mixon.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, McFarlane acknowledged he might not be the right person to direct the movie given the stakes involved. “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. “The answer is, ‘of course.’ Let’s keep the momentum going.”

McFarlane also revealed that he saw the success of the R-rated Joker as a turning point for the reboot. “Why not just go for the guy who wrote the movie?” he said, adding that he was surprised Silver said yes. “It was a complete hail mary. Sometimes timing is everything.”

Spellman described his affinity for Spawn in a statement. “I grew up in Berkeley, which is a comic book city,” he explained. “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.”

McFarlane introduced the demonic comic book character in 1992 after founding the independent publisher Image Comics. Spawn became one of the company’s breakout successes in the ’90s and still serves as one of their tentpole series. McFarlane currently writes one of its offshoots, Gunslinger Spawn, and spearheaded the upcoming DC crossover Batman Spawn.

The Spawn reboot will follow the 1997 feature film starring Michael Jai White as the murdered CIA black ops soldier Al Simmons, who was brought back from the dead as the soul-gathering Hellspawn, and John Leguizamo as his arch-nemesis, Violater (perhaps better known as  “Clown”). The character also led an HBO animated series for three seasons between 1997 and 1999.

The movie’s hype was initially revived on October 3rd when McFarlane posted a hand-drawn note that promised an update the following day, which was later postponed to Wednesday. He followed the tease by retweeting an interview with New York radio station Q104.3 where he shared that Foxx has been “hardcore” about the film.

Huge SPAWN MOVIE news breaking tomorrow!!! #SpawnMovie pic.twitter.com/72r6sruinh

— Todd McFarlane (@Todd_McFarlane) October 3, 2022

Sorry for the delay.
-TODD pic.twitter.com/RMKVp42M3I

— Todd McFarlane (@Todd_McFarlane) October 4, 2022

STAY TUNED for 12 PM ET. #SpawnMovie @Q1043 pic.twitter.com/nP6oIlz3Rm

— Todd McFarlane (@Todd_McFarlane) October 5, 2022

[flexi-common-toolbar] [flexi-form class=”flexi_form_style” title=”Submit to Flexi” name=”my_form” ajax=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”post_title” class=”fl-input” title=”Title” value=”” required=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”category” title=”Select category”][flexi-form-tag type=”tag” title=”Insert tag”][flexi-form-tag type=”article” class=”fl-textarea” title=”Description” ][flexi-form-tag type=”file” title=”Select file” required=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”submit” name=”submit” value=”Submit Now”] [/flexi-form]