James Mangold Sees Swamp Thing As a Standalone Gothic Horror Movie

DC’s Swamp Thing will be part of the DC Studios franchise reboot that’s in the works, and the project has landed The Wolverine and Logan director James Mangold. Mangold has quite a few big franchises on his plate right now: he’s debuting his Indiana Jones film The Dial of Destiny this summer; it’s also been announced that Mangold will helm a pivotal Star Wars movie exploring the beginning of the Jedi Order. When it comes to Swamp Thing, Mangold will be tackling one of the most pivotal entities in the DC Universe. So how much is that weighing on him? 

Short answer: not at all. 

“While I’m sure DC views Swamp Thing as a franchise, I would be viewing it as a very simple, clean, Gothic horror movie about this man/monster… Just doing my own thing with this, just a standalone.” Mangold told Variety. He added that he’s been “toying for years with the idea of making a kind of Frankenstein movie,” for years before calling James Gunn and Peter Safran about doing something for DC Studios. 

Anyone who has seen James Mangold’s films (The Wolverine, Logan, Ford v. Ferrari, 3:10 to Yuma) knows that he has a pretty clear signature of telling standalone stories with clear and pointed narrative, character, and thematic arcs. He’s never been lured by the franchise universe model – even The Wolverine and Logan (two consecutive movies in the same franchise) were each treated as standalone films, barely connected to the larger X-Men franchise beyond indirect references to past events. His Star Wars project is going all the way back to the beginning of the Jedi Order timeline, side-stepping the larger franchise lore almost entirely. 

How to Build The New DCU Right

As discussed on our ComicBook Nation podcast show, DC is in a bad way right now when it comes to its franchise universe plans. The Flash stumbled at the box office, continuing a trend of DC Extended Universe projects flailing at the box office (Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods), especially since DC Studios and a total franchise reboot was announced. It’s clear that the confusion about the franchise canon (and all the recent multiverse madness) has kept general audiences from heavily investing their time and money at the theater; meanwhile, standalone DC projects by visionary filmmakers (The Batman, Joker, The Dark Knight Trilogy) have done substantially better.

That’s all to say: James Mangold approaching Swamp Thing as a standalone is arguably THE approach that filmmakers need to be taking with the franchise during DCU Chapter One: “Gods and Monsters.”

Swamp Thing is in development at DC Studios.