The Swamp Thing TV series may have just found its biggest foe yet.
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A recent report from Deadline confirmed that Will Patton will be joining the DC Universe series, and will be portraying the role of General Avery Carlton Sunderland.
As its most prominent businessman, Sunderland serves as the de facto patriarch of his Louisiana hometown, always giving back to the community. His benevolent veneer, however, masks a ruthless determination to harness the power of the swamp for profit.
Patton’s filmography includes Armageddon, 24, Remember the Titans, and the Halloween reboot. This marks Patton’s most recent role in the comic book realm, after playing Quentin Glass in 2004’s The Punisher movie.
Sunderland’s involvement in the Swamp Thing TV show is certainly interesting, considering what we already know about the series’ plot. In the comics, Sunderland serves as the CEO of the Sunderland Corporation, which has ties to Alec Holland’s work with the Bio-Restorative formula. Sunderland becomes intrigued with what exactly happened to Holland, employing a scientist named Jason Woodrue to do an autopsy of sorts on Swamp Thing in the iconic “The Anatomy Lesson” issue. Woodrue eventually learns that Swamp Thing is a separate being from Alec Holland, which motivates Swamp Thing to kill Sunderland.
Considering the fact that “The Anatomy Lesson” is confirmed to appear in the series in some form or fashion, fans will surely be interested to see exactly if Sunderland meets the same fate.
Swamp Thing will star Crystal Reed as Abby Arcane, Maria Sten as Liz Tremayne, Jennifer Beals as Sheriff Cable, Jeryl Prescott as Madame Xanadu, and Virginia Madsen as Avery’s wife, Maria Sunderland. Derek Mears will reportedly play the Swamp Thing creature.
“This is one, when you talked earlier about the rating for The Nun, we always set out to make Swamp Thing as hard R as we could and go graphic with the violence, with the adult themes and make it as scary as possible,” producer Gary Dauberman explained in a recent interview. “Because we’re doing it through the DC streaming service, they really pushed us, although they didn’t have to push hard, for us to go as extreme as we could. We really took our inspiration from the Alan Moore run in Swamp Thing, this landmark I think run. Fans of that series will know it gets pretty weird and extreme and scary. We really wanted to live up to that standard that Moore set up back in the ’80s.”
Swamp Thing was first given a script-to-series order in May of this year, to the delight of DC Comics and horror fans alike. The project will be co-written by Mark Verheiden (Daredevil, Battlestar Galactica) and Gary Dauberman (It), who will serve as showrunners. The pilot will be directed by Underworld director Len Wiseman. Aquaman director James Wan is set to executive produce, alongside Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear, with Atomic Monster’s Rob Hackett set to co-produce.
Swamp Thing will debut sometime in 2019 on DC Universe.
