Todd McFarlane Says ‘Spawn’ Reboot Isn’t An Origin Story

Spawn creator Todd McFarlane says his Blumhouse-produced reboot won’t be an origin story.

“Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m not interested in the origin story,” McFarlane told ComicBook.com when asked if audiences will see the backstory of murdered CIA operative Al Simmons (Jamie Foxx).

“I can’t do it. I can’t do it,” the writer-director said. “I’ve seen too many movies that spend way too much time for the set up.”

Saying he’s “exhausted by those movies,” McFarlane added he doesn’t “find those movies interesting.”

He references the mysterious brought by recent horror hit A Quiet Place, which starts on day 89 of the apocalypse.

“Given A Quiet Place came out and it starts with day 89, I love it. I love it,” McFarlane said. “It didn’t go in any depth what happened in those first 88 days. I love it. So either you just go for the ride, or you don’t.”

The comic book creator then pointed to metal-clawed mutant Wolverine of the X-Men, who for much of his Marvel Comics history was shrouded in mystery.

“Why do you think Wolverine was so popular? Because we didn’t know who he was for a long, long time. And that’s what made him cool,” McFarlane said.

“And you can argue that it’s like he became a little bit less cool, other than he’s Canadian, I don’t mind, but he became a little less cool once you actually gave the origin away, right? So, I sort of liked him when he was like a mystery.”

McFarlane described the project to ComicBook as both a supernatural thriller — not a horror movie — and a superhero creep movie.

That means keeping his Academy Award-winning star mostly in the shadows, treating him much like the little-seen but ferocious shark from Jaws.

“When you start going into creep movies, then the camera doesn’t follow the boogie man, or the monster. It follows humans, which I have in my movie,” McFarlane said. “But people enjoy creepy movies and don’t go, ‘Oh my gosh, I wish I saw the boogie man more.’ They don’t do that. They just go, ‘Wow, that was cool.’”

Foxx was confirmed for the role on Tuesday and is so far the only announced actor to board the project, which comes from The Purge and Halloween producers Blumhouse Productions.

Spawn has yet to announce a release date.