Todd McFarlane has been talking about a second Spawn movie almost since the first one went cold at the box office. In 1998, it was potentially going to be a direct sequel. In 2001, Transformers producer Don Murphy was supposed to be involved. In 2007, seemingly inspired by Mel Gibson’s success with The Passion of the Christ, McFarlane said he’d make it independently, himself. In 2009, he said he had begun writing the script; almost every year since, he claims to be almost finished with it. He claimed to have finished in 2016, but has since talked about trying to get it right with other writers. In 2018, Jamie Foxx was attached to star as Al Simmons/Spawn, with Jeremy Renner as Detective Twitch Williams; Foxx continues to be interested, though Renner hasn’t talked about it in a while. Blumhouse has been involved since 2017, which tracks with comments McFarlane has made over the years about wanting to do more of an R-rated ghost story than a superhero blockbuster.
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Dread Central caught up with McFarlane to ask him the latest on the long-gestating feature, and yet again, he said he’s still trying to get the script right. But he also named the two recent films that could have an influence, saying, “When I see examples like Obsession or Backrooms, you go, ‘The audience will consume this.’” He praised both for being dark, gritty, and unsettling, but there are certainly other aspects that could translate well to Spawn.
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Before “liminal spaces” became a buzzphrase, one of the hallmarks of Spawn was that he lived in an endless maze of back alleys in New York City dubbed “Rat City” by the homeless population. Like the titular Backrooms, the scary space just went on and on, branching into progressively disturbing areas. The terrifying Captain Clark character, so tall and gangly, is also a pretty good size and scale match for Spawn’s Hellish archenemy Violator.
McFarlane knows how to pitch the project based on whatever is popular at the time. When The Passion of the Christ was a phenomenon, Spawn was going to be the devilish antithesis of that. In 2009, he compared his idea for the movie to Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning The Departed. In 2019, it was going to be like Joker. It’s getting to the point where fans are skeptical they will ever see any version of this, although, to be fair, Dan Aykroyd used to talk the same way about a potential Ghostbusters 3 for decades, and now we have four installments and a remake in that series.
When McFarlane started his own toy company to make Spawn action figures, it seemed like a pipe dream when he said he wanted to make a Batman toy one day…let alone hold the entire DC Multiverse license for years. He can’t be counted out when he really has a goal.
As for Obsession, there’s less of a 1:1 similarity between the plots and characters, though possessed “Freaky Nikki” has the intense, scary temperament of the demons and serial killers Spawn often has to confront. When it comes to the One-Wish Willow, it seems pretty clear what McFarlane’s one wish would be: to get this movie finally greenlit and in production.
Perhaps, however, McFarlane could take note of what both movies have in common — they were directed by filmmakers who had built up a following from online shorts. There’s no barrier to YouTube distribution; if he really wants to direct a Spawn feature himself, or at least micromanage it, trying five-minute bites might be a good way to get those filmmaking chops in shape and build an audience at the same time. Just ask Kane Parsons and Curry Barker.
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