It’s looking like all the pieces are falling into place for Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. He’s got a great cast, including Jamie Foxx as the supernatural anti-hero and Jeremy Renner as NYPD detective Twitch, an impressive behind the scenes crew including The Walking Dead‘s gore guru Greg Nicotero and an apparently impressive script. The only hurdle he needs to get over is convincing a studio to officially greenlight the film.
Though it’s a relatively low budget affair for a superhero movie, they may be baulking at the prospect of McFarlane taking the director’s seat and the film’s unorthodox approach to its hero. In a decision no doubt made with one eye on the budget, McFarlane’s tactic is to treat the titular character a bit like the shark in Jaws, keeping him off-screen as long as possible in order to build suspense and mystery around him.
Precisely what that tactic means for the plot is now a little clearer, if this synopsis shared by Super Bro Movies is accurate. They claim that the upcoming movie will focus on Jeremy Renner’s NYPD detective as he mourns the loss of his daughter to gang violence. This leads him into a quest for revenge on those who killed her, with his ultimate goal to take down the largest criminal factions in New York. Of course, that proves to be a pretty intense undertaking, especially when he uncovers a conspiracy for the gangs to combine and take over the entirety of New York.
Faced with this impending war, Renner’s Twitch feels unable to combat it, and that’s when Spawn arrives. He’s an urban legend with inside knowledge of both Twitch’s daughter’s death and the crime families. With Spawn’s help, Twitch begins a true crusade against crime.
It sounds like a promising story, not to mention an appropriately original take on the traditional superhero tale. I just really hope rumors of Spawn starting full production in early 2019 are true. Don’t get me wrong, I like the MCU formula, but the world has room for weirder takes on what a superhero movie can be.