Todd McFarlane on why Spawn won’t be like Deadpool or Logan

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

A few years ago, no one would have even gotten a meeting to pitch a superhero movie if the plan was to make it R-rated. Now with DEADPOOL and LOGAN making over a billion dollars combined at the box office, studios are looking far and wide for properties to turn into adult fare. The upcoming SPAWN movie will be a hard-R entry, but don’t go around comparing it to DEADPOOL around character creator Todd McFarlane.

The creator of Spawn – and the director/writer of the upcoming movie – recently spoke at the ACE Comic Con (via ComicBook), and said that people are always bringing up DEADPOOL and LOGAN when the topic of R-rated superhero movies come up. In his mind, DEADPOOL isn’t really an R-rated film at its core, instead earning its rating because of some dirty jokes and some butts.

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

He went on to talk about how his movie will differ from the likes of DEADPOOL, saying his movie won’t be “fun” or have any witty one-liners.

When I’m talking R, I’m talking that there wouldn’t be a lot of fun, there won’t be any stupid lines in it. I never like my hero to make a joke right when the jeopardy was at its highest. If I felt that my hero wasn’t afraid right now, why should I be? I want my heroes to go “S**t, where do I go now?”

Fans of superhero movies should even be a bit wary of his movie, as he continued by saying this movie will not resemble what a modern superhero movie looks like.

Here’s what I do know. It should be impossible for anybody to go to the movie and say “I’m disappointed, I thought it was a superhero movie.” Because there’s this thing called the internet and TV and you’ll see the trailer and there will be nothing in the trailer that will say that this is a superhero movie.”

McFarlane has brought up LOGAN and DEADPOOL in the past, saying his movie will go further than those movies did with the R-rating and that his film will be "nasty." He mentioned the same thing at the ACE Comic Con, saying his movie will be "creepy" and "messed up." McFarlane said the reason for such a gruesome movie is to appeal to his lifelong readers who bought the first Spawn comic have grown up with the character. 

Though comic fans are probably looking forward to McFarlane's grisly Spawn movie, I have to disagree with him on his analysis of DEADPOOL. The movie had more than just naked butts and a few f-bombs (see our new video above). I mean, even THE BOSS BABY had naked butts, and BOYHOOD got an R-rating for a few f-bombs. DEADPOOL took things to a whole other level, and the tone of the movie is completely uninhibited and embracing of the adult style. There can be other kinds of R-rated movies, and they don't all have to be bloody, horrifying, joyless affairs. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to that kind of Spawn movie, but there's nothing wrong with a little variety in the R-rated movie circuit. 

SPAWN is set to hit theaters sometime in 2019.