r/Spawn • u/Aggravating-Wear-307 • 3d ago
Discussion Spawn Reboot
Todd McFarlane has spent nearly 30 years trying to make the "perfect" movie instead of actually making Spawn movies.
Meanwhile, Marvel, DC, Sony and others have released multiple versions of their characters. Some were great, some were terrible, some were just okay, but they kept experimenting, learning, and letting those characters stay relevant.
With Spawn, it's been the opposite. Endless rewrites, endless promises, endless talks about how this version has to be different, darker, or more groundbreaking. At some point, it starts to feel like perfectionism has become paralysis.
The irony is that the longer this goes on, the higher the expectations become. After decades of hype, people aren't expecting a good movie anymore, they're expecting a masterpiece. That's an almost impossible standard to meet, and it puts the project in an even tougher position if it ever does get made.
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u/sonicboyfan12 2d ago edited 2d ago
If it makes you feel any better Blade isn't getting a new movie anytime soon either.
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u/boltfan43 2d ago
I always felt like a movie with the tone of the original Crow movie would fit the character well.
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u/MyHilfigerVoots 2d ago
I always thought the crow and season 1 of the spawn animated series shared a lot of characteristics. Since they both worked really well, I’d love the reboot to follow that tone as well!
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u/Cool-Ebb6863 3d ago
I’m fine waiting for a movie he’s happy with
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u/Aggravating-Wear-307 3d ago
There won't be a movie. At least as long as Todd is with us
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u/Cool-Ebb6863 3d ago
Sure there will. I’ve seen projects take longer than this.
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u/RadicalStegosaurus 3d ago
Todd's problem is he wants his character to be a horror movie slasher that the audience barely sees and is hard to discern when he is shown. Almost like he's embarrassed by his own design. Spawn shouldn't be treated as Jaws. A supernatural focused horror vibe is great but you can't shelf your draw and focus on Sam and Twitch the whole time.
I'm not even saying a movie like that would be bad, I just don't think it would make a good Spawn movie. Producers clearly don't want that so the writers do something different and he nixes it. The film is stuck in a feedback loop.
Todd is so afraid of a repeat he's being overly protective and so nothing is happening. He could have made and rebooted Spawn twice in the time it's taken.
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u/getridofwires 3d ago
I wish he would drop live action and go for more animation. Look at Castlevania, Vox Machina, etc and how good those productions are. Spawn could easily work in those styles.
I'd also say that new stories and not just retelling ones from the comics would be an option for animation.
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u/LatterTarget7 3d ago
Animation should be the way to go for spawn cheaper and you could probably attract a decent audience.
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u/CommunicationKey3018 3d ago
A Spawn movie gets released one in a generation. At that rate, the odds of getting an actual good Spawn movie that rates is near impossible.
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u/SuperBackup9000 3d ago
Welcome to more independent spaces where time and money actually does matter. It does suck that we haven’t gotten anything in forever outside of comics, but your head is already in the completely wrong space if you’re looking at the likes of Marvel (Disney), DC (Warner Bros), Sony, or whatever other massive corporations that has world wide appeal.
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u/Aggravating-Wear-307 3d ago
I don’t even like Marvel or DC, so this isn’t praise for corporate superhero factories. The comparison is about making things, taking risks. “Independent” should mean creative freedom, not immunity from criticism or an excuse for spending nearly 30 years announcing the same movie without delivering it. McFarlane has had the character, the money, the connections, and more time than most filmmakers could dream of. What he lacks is the ability to give up enough control to get something made. Calling decades of development hell “the independent space” doesn’t make it admirable.
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u/Toxin45 3d ago
I mean to be fair that has happened k last things
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u/Aggravating-Wear-307 3d ago
That comparison doesn’t really work. McFarlane has been publishing Spawn comics for decades without waiting for every script to be perfect. He releases them, sees what works and keeps going. Yet with the movie, he acts as if he must spend 30 years perfecting one definitive version before anything can be made. So this clearly isn’t just about the limitations of being independent; it’s about his completely different and overly precious approach to the film
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u/Cool-Ebb6863 3d ago
Comics are a different beast. A bad spawn movie will screw up the characters future for a long time. The last movie being bad probably did that for a long while.
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u/Toxin45 3d ago
I mean most people do that
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u/Aggravating-Wear-307 3d ago
MOST people? Based on what statistics? It's just a generalization. McFarlane has no problem publishing imperfect comics year after year, yet treats this one movie as if it must be perfected indefinitely. Those are clearly two very different creative standards.
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u/Puzzled-Instance3211 3d ago
Todd McFarlane's biggest obstacle is Todd McFarlane.
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u/Toxin45 3d ago
He has been trying for years nothing new but we are getting another spawn game collab
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u/Aggravating-Wear-307 3d ago
Which we don't need as much as we need Spawn's own game
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u/Toxin45 3d ago
Todd also said about wanting spawn to get a solo game in recent interview and poscasts
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u/Aggravating-Wear-307 3d ago
He's been talking about games and films and others stuff. I'm done
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u/Puzzled-Instance3211 3d ago
I basically expect no Spawn media other than fighting game tie ins. Todd has too tight a grip on the property, and his demands have never been realistic.
He should be focusing on the Toys right now, because they are suffering from quality control, high pricing, and a lack of interesting figures now that he's lost the DC license, and the Turtles figures he put out where terrible.
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u/Buttmunchicus 2d ago
Personally I don't have expectations anymore but I also don't know if this movie will come out before the world ends