DC’s live-action Swamp Thing series is going for a hard R tone

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

DC Entertainment recently unveiled a trailer for the live-action superhero series Titans that will be airing on their subscription VOD service DC Universe, a trailer in which Batman's sidekick Robin is seen making a bloody mess of some criminals before delivering the line "F*ck Batman." So if DC is willing to go there with the Boy Wonder, it's no surprise to hear that the creative team behind their upcoming Swamp Thing series is aiming to achieve a "hard R" tone with the show.

Speaking with /Film, THE NUN screenwriter Gary Dauberman, who is writing the Swamp Thing show with Ash vs. Evil Dead season 3 showrunner Mark Verheiden, revealed that

… we always set out to make Swamp Thing as hard R as we could and go graphic with the violence, with the adult themes and make it as scary as possible. Because we’re doing it through the DC streaming service, they really pushed us, although they didn’t have to push hard, for us to go as extreme as we could. We really took our inspiration from the Alan Moore run in Swamp Thing, this landmark I think run. Fans of that series will know it gets pretty weird and extreme and scary. We really wanted to live up to that standard that Moore set up back in the ‘80s. 

Dauberman also confirmed that Swamp Thing will be brought to life on the screen by an actor wearing a practical suit, as he was in the films SWAMP THING and THE RETURN OF SWAMP THING, as well as the live-action Swamp Thing series from the early '90s. This version of the character just won't have such an obvious "man in suit" look.

As for how the show will deal with modern day environmental concerns, Dauberman says,

That stuff is hard not to address when you’re doing a show like this. Certainly, it’s not Captain Planet but there is an underlying eco message there. We don’t want to become too preachy with that stuff but it’s more of dealing with people who are living out in the swamps and what they do to the environment, how it affects things and causes things to react. It’s hard not to draw some parallel there to what’s happening today.

Crystal Reed was recently cast as the show's female lead, CDC doctor Abby Arcane.

Her strong sense of empathy puts her at the center of a horrific life-threatening epidemic in her hometown, where she faces emotional demons from her past… while a chance meeting with scientist Alec Holland takes her into a world of horror and the supernatural, and of the elemental creature known as Swamp Thing.

Maria Sten is set to co-star as Abby Arcane's childhood friend Liz Tremayne, "who splits her time between reporting for the local paper and bartending at her aging father’s roadhouse bar. Her no-nonsense attitude belies a deep compassion for her friends and family as she sets out in her uncompromising quest to expose the secrets that threaten her beloved hometown."

Len Wiseman will be directing the pilot episode and executive producing the series with Dauberman, Verheiden, Michael Clear, and James Wan. Swamp Thing will debut on DC Universe sometime in 2019.