After nearly a decade of trying to get the ball rolling, Todd McFarlane is ready to stop talking about the Spawn reboot movie for now. The comic book creator has been developing a new adaptation of his iconic comic book franchise himself for quite some time, with Jamie Foxx signing on in 2018 to lead the cast after Blumhouse Productions signed on the year before. Even still, the Spawn reboot has faced a variety of hurdles in the years since, with the project still awaiting a proper greenlight.

Now, during a recent interview with CBR at MEGACON Orlando, McFarlane was asked for an update on the long-awaited reboot, enтιтled King Spawn. The creator acknowledged that he and his wife believe their manager feels they’re “tired” of the ongoing news cycle of vague updates for the movie, while expressing his hope that the next news they share is “we’ve made the deal“:

No, yeah, my wife and I think the manager is just like, “We’re tired of it, Todd.” So the next big piece of news will be something that’s 100% concrete, right? I’m hoping that the next piece of news will be we’ve made the deal, right, and when that will be, I don’t know. We’re all moving towards that direction, but like, it’s just time to just go… I’ll talk to you when I’ve got something… Literally, when I have a bird in my hand and I can give you something concrete instead of going, “Hey, we added…” because we can add actors, and we can add producers, and we can add a director, it doesn’t, it doesn’t get us to the sale and into production.

McFarlane went on to explain that the endless behind-the-scenes deals and changes are big parts of a project, but that having a production date “means you’re gonna be making something“, and as such, he doesn’t intend to share any more updates on King Spawn until he and his team “have something meaningful” to offer their fanbase. See the rest of what McFarlane explained below:

That’s production, making it, making the deal, and having a production date, that means you’re gonna be making something, right? And so that’d be the next big step. So we’ll see, hopefully, it’s sooner than later. Like I said, everybody’s pushing in that direction right now. We won’t be shy. It’s just, I want to make sure that we have something meaningful the next time.

What This Means For The Spawn Reboot

McFarlane & Co. May Go Radio Silence For A While

On the surface, McFarlane’s desire to stop sharing updates on King Spawn for the time being does make a lot of sense when considering its timeline thus far. He’s been trying to produce a movie reboot since 2007, and while the past decade has been the most fruitful in its progress, with both Foxx and Jeremy Renner’s castings, Blumhouse’s involvement and Scott Silver, Malcolm Spellman and Matthew Mixon all being brought onboard to rewrite McFarlane’s original screenplay. Even as he’s continued to expand the world of Spawn comics, he’s continued to be inundated with questions about the reboot.

That being said, given McFarlane’s latest comments don’t point to any major updates having been made recently, it seems entirely possible King Spawn will endure some radio silence for a while. One of the biggest sticking points, per previous comments, has been landing a director for the film, with McFarlane originally planning to direct the movie himself for the longest time, though later admitting he didn’t think a studio would entrust him with such a big undertaking for his feature directorial debut.

The other major factor the movie is facing are the busy schedules of Foxx and Renner. While it’s been a while since there were any reaffirmations of the latter’s involvement in King Spawn, if he is still involved, he also has to make room in his schedule with Mayor of Kingstown season 4 and the likelihood of his Marvel Cinematic Universe return in the next two Avengers movies. Additionally, Foxx is still said to be working on his Mike Tyson biopic, now a limited series instead of a film, which would require a bigger time commitment, and potentially delay King Spawn further.

Our Take On King Spawn’s Fewer Incoming Updates

A Blessing In Disguise

As a major fan of the source material, it’s certainly disheartening how long King Spawn has taken to get off the ground, particularly now that superhero fatigue is setting in, and McFarlane and his team may have missed the perfect opportunity to release it. With that said, I do think having fewer updates in the near future is going to be a blessing in disguise for the reboot, as absence not only makes the heart grow fonder, but also builds greater anticipation for something like this, and with more time spent on refining it than telling us it’ll happen eventually, the wait will be worth it.

Source: CBR