Todd McFarlane Addresses If There Will Be An Uncut Version Of ‘Spawn’ Movie

The creator of Spawn is hard at work on bringing his vision of the character to life in a cinematic reboot, and Todd McFarlane wants to push the boundaries of what an R-rated “superhero” movie can be.

A common trend for horror films is to put out an “uncensored” or “uncut” version, stretching past the limits of what the MPAA’s rating system allows. ComicBook.com asked McFarlane if Spawn will have a similar version when it’s released.

“I haven’t [thought that far ahead] but I’ll give you my reaction,” said McFarlane. “Those are a lot of movies where they shoot a bunch of stuff and the extras are all the stuff they didn’t use. My brain right now is everything that we’ve got in the script, we’re gonna end up using. If we don’t use it, it will be because the scene wasn’t interesting, or didn’t drive the movie forward for some reason, or didn’t work in the editing bay.”

McFarlane admitted that based on the script, he doesn’t think it would be “sexy” to call such a version “uncut,” because the plan for the movie is to already be dark, gritty, and violent.

“I don’t know that we’re gonna have to do the uncut version,” McFarlane said. “I keep trying to explain to people, when I say [rated] R, I’m not talking Deadpool. It’s a successful movie, I’m not saying it’s not.

“But to me, Deadpool the way that it’s presented is a PG-13 superhero comic book movie that happens to have a naked butt and a few curse words. I don’t really think of that as a true R; to me, R is drama. I thought that Logan pushed it further… I don’t want there to be any elements that say we’re superhero esque. I don’t want to send a mixed message in this movie.”

McFarlane, who will be directing Spawn for Blumhouse, is dedicated to making his film as dark and horrific as he possibly can, treating it more like a thriller or slasher movie than a typical superhero film.

Check out ComicBook.com for more on our conversation about Spawn with McFarlane.