‘Spawn’ Creator Promises New Movie Will Have Absolutely No Funny Business

While the box office numbers and general internet response would indicate that Deadpool and Logan were very successful and widely-beloved films that subverted popular superhero conventions, at least one man is not having any of it: Todd McFarlane. The comic book creator and action figure purveyor has been making the rounds to (once again) talk up that long-promised new Spawn movie, which, as he previously explained, will do for Hellspawns what Jaws did for sharks. According to McFarlane’s latest comments, it also won’t have any of that problematic “fun” stuff that plagued Deadpool and Logan.

Speaking with azcentral (via The Playlist), McFarlane criticized Deadpool and, bizarrely, Logan for not being R-rated enough, and promised that his new live-action Spawn movie will be a straight-up horror show, basically:

It’s funny in Hollywood, if you say you want to do an R-rated movie, they go like ‘Oh like Deadpool and like Logan?’ For me, no. Deadpool, to me, was a PG-13 action movie. It just had some naked butts and a couple f-bombs. Other than that, I thought it was the same PG-13 formula.

I’m talking R, I’m talking that there will not be a lot of fun, there will not be be any stupid lines in it… I never like my hero to make a joke right when the jeopardy was at its highest. So if I felt that my hero wasn’t afraid right now, why should I be?… I want my heroes to go ‘Shit, what do I do now?’.

Okay, so here are McFarlane’s demands: No “stupid lines” (especially during crucial action moments), no funny business, no naked butts (I guess?), no jokes — and certainly none from the mouth of Spawn himself, who, when confronted with intense threats to his existence, should only exclaim, “S—, what do I do now?”

I don’t know, Mr. McFarlane. That sounds like a comedy to me.

All kidding aside (sorry, I know how he hates that), McFarlane clearly wants to take a more serious, dark-as-hell approach to his more serious, dark-as-hell character. And hey, a legit R-rated horror film version of Spawn definitely sounds interesting. But even last year’s IT had some jokes. Just something to think about.