Todd McFarlane Teases Spawn Update Thanks to Joker Movie Success

Joker is racking up awards at a breathtaking pace and that is making a lot of people very happy. One person that is absolutely stoke on the film’s success is Todd McFarlane, who believes this current wave of interest in darker stories could help bring a new Spawn movie to theaters. Now, the creator has hinted at the possibility of a new film for a while and he took to Instagram to once again float the idea of another project. The 1997 movie is a beloved piece of media by a lot of fans. The success of Deadpool and Joker had opened some eyes as to what can be done with more mature content in comic book movies. McFarlane sounds hopeful that the coming month could provide some new details about the project heading forward.

Over the summer at New York Comic Con he said, “It’s interesting because Hollywood people sometimes say, ‘No, it doesn’t matter who you’re talking about. This doesn’t matter. This doesn’t matter.’ Of course it matters, right?”

The artist added, “Because you’ve seen it dozens of times, ‘movie A’ with ‘topic A’ does great. There’s a mad rush to replicate it. ‘TV show A’ with ‘topic A’ is successful, there’s a mad rush for everybody to replicate. So what I’m hoping for is that last year was the release of Venom, and so that adds a little bit of a checkmark next to the resume because I go, ‘Hey, the guy who co-created Venom is also got this character called Spawn.’”

“I’m hoping Joker opens up big and right now it’s tracking. So I hope it does, and then what it will prove is that you can do R-rated movies,” he continued. “And, again, there’ve been R-rated superhero movies with Logan and Deadpool, but I’m talking in which the content is serious, right? That somebody took it and had this serious tale. And if that works, then they’re going to do their checkbox and they’re going to go, ‘Hey, you know what we need more of? What just worked? Oh yeah, R-rated, check. Comic book material, check and dark, check.’ And that’s Spawn check, check, check. So I’ve been trying to say this to them. I think this type of material will work, but they just need sometimes the proof in the pudding to go, ‘Oh! That’s what you’ve been telling us. You’re saying the audience can get a wider diet than just PG 13. Yes, yes. On a serious level, on a serious level, not Deadpool level.’”

“So if it works, I’m hoping that I can be the next guy in the door going, ‘Hey, you don’t have to call through your, unless you’re Warner Brothers and Disney, you don’t have to start calling through who can I go get that’s R-rated,” McFarlane concluded.