Original Spawn Actor Michael Jai White Speaks Out on Todd McFarlane’s Reboot Plans

For the last couple years, Image Comics founder and comic artist Todd McFarlane has tried to get a movie reboot of Spawn off of the ground. The creator has spent this last year pushing the character past a massive milestone, with Spawn becoming the longest-running independent comic in the history of comic publishing. And while the comic is chugging along, it seems like his plans for the movie has hit a snag. Despite having interest from A-list actors including Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner, as well as a producing partner from Blumhouse Productions, the movie has yet to materialize.

Actor Michael Jai White starred as the title character in the original Spawn movie released in 1997, and he’s a little curious about what McFarlane is planning. ComicBook spoke with White about McFarlane’s plans to reboot Spawn.

“I don’t know anything about it. He’s been talking about a reboot of Spawn for 20 years,” White said. “I think he will continue talking about it, because people listen. I don’t understand it, personally. I wish him the best of luck. But, Todd explained to me that this will be a character that you didn’t see. You never see the character. It’s just a character that’s scarcely on film. Personally, I don’t get it.”

White went on to theorize that one of the setbacks could be the fact that McFarlane has never made a movie before, and that might make financiers reluctant to invest in the project.

“I would think a Spawn movie would cost a lot of money, right? And if there’s somebody giving Todd McFarlane, a man who’s never directed a movie that much money, that will be a first in my experience. I’ll believe it when I see it,” White said.

He added, “I wish him the best of luck, but doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

McFarlane has spoken at length about what he has planed for the Spawn movie, including the idea that the character will scarcely appear on screen in hopes of making it more of a horror film.

ComicBook spoke with McFarlane at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year and he explained what he needs to make it happen.

“The money’s sitting on the sidelines ready to go. I just need to get everyone that wants to put in money to shake their heads to the same script,” McFarlane said. “As you can imagine, everyone has a slightly different version of it in their head. You just go and trying to appease a handful of people while not giving in to what it is that I’m trying to do myself. Because if I have to change it too much, I’ll just walk away from it all.”