Todd McFarlane Resurrects Spawn

[Brian Damage]

The impossible has happened. Todd McFarlane has actually figured out a way to make Spawn 2. How is he going to do it? By paying for it out of his wallet.

Moviehole has picked up a story from Home Media Magazine in which McFarlane talks about his character’s future movie possibilities. Apparently he’s already in the midst of writing a Spawn 2 script himself, and promises it’ll be different from the lame, 1997 version New Line Cinema did. McFarlane says, “I can make a spooky, suspenseful thriller that will scare the crap out of you.” I guess that means it will be darker?

Spawn is a CIA agent killed by his boss and sent to hell where he makes a deal with a demon to see his wife again. He’s transformed into a hellspawn and sent back to Earth where he tries to hang on to his humanity while battling criminal and supernatural elements. He’s more of a dark, twisted, anti-hero than a traditional good guy.

The character debuted on paper in 1992 and reached the height of his popularity in the mid-90s, a little before the first movie came out. Even then the film was sort of a flop. Ten years later, interest in the character has cooled, the comics aren’t selling as well, and self-financed or not it seems to me that McFarlane has missed his window. Maybe he can force this sequel into happening though sheer force of will, but I doubt there’s much of an audience for it.