Spawn may be moving into a new era in film, but that doesn’t mean that creator Todd McFarlane has forgotten its history.

McFarlane caught up with Michael Jai White, the star of the 1997 Spawn movie, at Comic-Con International: San Diego. The two shook hands posed for a photo, which can be seen below.

The Spawn movie told the origin story of Al Simmons and how he became Spawn. The film was notable for heavy blood and gore but was panned by critics. The film has a 44.85 ComicBook.com Composite Score and a 2.86 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Rating (you can rate the film yourself below).

Produced by New Line Cinema with a $40 million budget, the film earned $87 million at the box office.The Spawn movie is notable for being the first major comic book superhero movie to feature an African American in the lead role.

Spawn was directed by Mark A.Z. Dippe. In addition to Michael Jai White as Spawn, the film also stars John Leguizamo as The Violator, Nicol Williamson as Cogliostro, Martin Sheen, Theresa Randle, DB Sweeney, Melinda Clarke, and Frank Welker as the voice of Malebolgia.

A sequel to Spawn was planned but never made. At Comic-Con International: San Diego, McFarlane announced that a reboot movie written, produced, and directed by himself had found a home at Blumhouse Productionss McFarlane says the new Spawn movie will be quite different than the average superhero movie made today, eschewing the popular PG-13 rating for a hard R and leaving “ray guns” and “cars” and “arch villains” out.

“It’s just going to be this dark, gritty world, and there’s going to be one thing in the entire world that is fantastic and it’s going to be Spawn,” McFarlane told ComicBook.com at Comic-Con. “I’d call it a dark supernatural thriller.”

The new Spawn movie is currently without a release date but the search is already on for the film’s star.

In Spawn, covert government assassin Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) is killed after being double-crossed by his boss, Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen). Upon arriving in Hell, Simmons is offered an opportunity to return to Earth if he’s willing to lead an evil army. He accepts, and is reincarnated as a “Hellspawn” — a twisted, horribly disfigured version of his former self. However, Spawn serves as a force of good, much to the dismay of the Devil’s henchman, a wicked clown (John Leguizamo).

More Spawn News: Todd McFarlane Explains How The Spawn Movie Ended Up At Blumhouse / Twitch Will Be The Main Character of the Spawn Movie/ McFarlane Planning Full Return To Spawn Comics / McFarlane Not Planning Any Toys Based On The Spawn Movie

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