Prophet Creator Rob Liefeld Reveals Why Arrow's Marc Guggenheim Is Perfect For Film

Yesterday brought the exciting news that the feature film adaptation of Rob Liefeld's original Image Comics character Prophet had made a big leap forward in its development. The film, set up in development at Studio 8, has officially tapped Arrowverse producer Marc Guggenheim to pen the script. The hiring of Guggenheim brings together two titans of the comic book world which is exactly why Liefeld believes he's such a good match for the property. Speaking with ComicBook.com, Liefeld opened up about the plans for the film and he why thinks Guggenheim was the perfect choice for the adaptation.

"John Prophet's story takes a huge twist, a huge turn and Marc is super talented," Liefeld said in our latest Talking Shop. "As you know when they told me that we had secured him, Marc was in very competitive position. A lot of people wanted to hire Marc and take his services away, and Studio 8, who's producing the movie, stepped up and secured Marc. When people ask me why I'm so excited about him. Look, the modern comic book television show was formed by Arrow....That show begat Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, you know, on and on and on.

Liefeld added, "Marc gets it. He came from comics. Obviously very talented guy. Super excited that he's on board. Super excited that we can share it with the world now. 'Cause now, like I said, Marc and I had several meetings. He walked me through his vision of the movie. And here's what I'll tell you. I don't have to prepare some sort of apology speech or go on an apology tour. I can tell you, I'm excited! Marc is doing great work. And I'm very hopeful. Prophet's got a big sci-fi spectacle. It's very much science fiction, but he has super powers like so many people."

The prolific comic creator further teased Studio 8's plans for the film, saying: "Mark Garland phoned me and says, Rob, we're gonna bring the comic to life, we're gonna bring the original to life. We're taking bits and pieces of the core of what people loved and expanding it."

First debuting in Liefeld's groundbreaking Youngblood comic series in 1992, John Prophet became a breakout hit all his own in the creator-owned Image Comics line of the '90s and 2000s. If Youngblood was Liefeld's vision of an Avengers-style superhero squad, Prophet was a twisted take on Captain America (with a very Thor-esque design aesthetic). His origin was that of a WWII-era homeless man taken and subjected to the super-soldier experiments of a time-traveling scientist from the future. The scientist (Horatio Wells) is tasked to create a living weapon for evil, but instead endows the soldier with a strong faith in God and a noble mission. Prophet is but in cryo-stasis to emerge as a secret weapon to help the evil force known as the Disciples. Instead, fate takes a turn when the Youngblood team accidentally discovers and awakens Prophet in the modern age. He instead becomes a hero for this day and age.