Michael Jai White Is Not a Fan of His ‘Spawn’ Movie

Prior to our current comic book movie renaissance, many attempts to adapt beloved characters into films in the mid-’90s resulted in fan disappointment. One of these adaptations was Spawn in 1997, starring Michael Jai White, who recently wanted to confirm that he wasn’t a fan of the movie in which he starred as the main character.

“There is no footage of me ever saying that I liked Spawn. I have never said that I thought that was a good movie,” White shared with The Hollywood Reporter.

Performers don’t always know how a film will turn out, despite giving a film their all. In the case of Spawn, it appears as though, despite White’s best efforts, he couldn’t endorse the movie and opted to avoid giving it his endorsement throughout its promotional campaign.

The failure of the live-action Spawn is likely one factor in the decision to move forward with another attempt at an adaptation, this time starring Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner. Another factor that contributed to the new adaptation going forward is the proven success of R-rated superhero stories like Deadpool and Logan.

“Well, you know, I’m gonna do some simple stuff that isn’t with the norm,” Spawn creator Todd McFarlane shared with ComicBook.com. “Even just going R-rated takes it out of the PG-13 category. Now, with it being R, we’ve now seen a couple of examples of that. Deadpool and Logan seem to be. Venom, I think Venom is gonna be R-rated. So, I’m hoping that our category succeeds. So that it will broaden the thought process of the studio executives to go, ‘Oh, it doesn’t have to be something onscreen that sells a bunch of toys and T-shirts. It can just be a something that’s a little more gritty.’”

He added, “For me, I know that I’m at the far end of R. Like, true drama, dark, serious R. I’m treating it as a real movie, minus the one thing that’s in there that will be fantastic with this R. So, minus that, everything is gritty. There are no arch villains. There’s no headquarters. There are no big ray guns. There are none of some of the trappings that we’re used to in some of the other big movies.”

The upcoming adaptation doesn’t have a release date but is expected to head into production before the end of the year.

How do you feel about White’s Spawn film? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T The Hollywood Reporter]