Todd McFarlane’s Spawn reboot? Let’s be honest, it’s never going to happen. He’s been talking about it for over a decade…rather incessantly, too. And finally in 2017 he managed to convince/trick Blumhouse into getting involved, so that now he can share blame with them when it doesn’t get made. Which it won’t. It’s all just really confusing, and someone else who doesn’t get it is Michael Jai White, who played Spawn in the dismal 1997 live-action movie.
Speaking with CBR, White pretty much laughed his way through trying to figure out why McFarlane is so insistent on doing a new Spawn film that only he can write and direct. McFarlane, for the record, has no experience as a Hollywood filmmaker and has some crazy ideas…
“He’s been trying to get a new movie up and going for 23 years so I don’t know. [Laughs],” said White. “The last time I saw him, he was telling me about his idea of Spawn being ethereal fog that you don’t see, like ‘Jaws,’ and he strikes and you never see him and I’m like ‘Okay, good luck with that!’ Personally, I wish him well, that would be a major investment.”
“I don’t know Todd to be a director at all. It’s kind of like Stan Lee: He created the character but he doesn’t direct him and I guess somebody would have to pony up a lot of money for Todd McFarlane to direct for his first time directing this movie idea that he has. I’ve heard about Jamie Foxx starring in it and wish them well. I don’t know, maybe it continues because this is what people like to hear from Todd McFarlane. He can get attention by promising another ‘Spawn’; I don’t get it.”
“Ethereal fog”? The fuck??
Anyway, White nails it. This is what McFarlane does. He hasn’t created many characters that people give a shit about anymore, so the only way to keep attention on himself is to bring up Spawn at every opportunity. That stopped working after a while, but the addition of Blumhouse got everyone paying attention again.
Unfortunately, there has been zero movement on a new Spawn movie ever since. Sure, Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner were supposed to be in it, but who knows if that’s still the case. As recently as a few months ago McFarlane was still hyping it up, promising a big star had come aboard. We never did find out who that was. Maybe he or she has yet to emerge from the ethereal fog.
The good news for fans of the character is that the excellent Spawn animated series is still out there and you can watch it on HBO Max.
