It’s only been a day since co-CEOs of DC Studios, James Gunn and Peter Safran, announced their first tranche of films and television shows in their new DC Universe. One of those films was the horror project, Swamp Thing, and while we got little specifics on the film beyond Safran saying, “this is a film that will investigate the dark origins of Swamp Thing,” it looks like we now know who is the frontrunner to direct.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, James Mangold—whose previous credits include Logan, Ford v Ferrari and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny—is in preliminary talks to helm Swamp Thing.
Mangold’s Twitter actions—where he posted an artistic image of the titular creature by co-creator Bernie Wrightson—support THR’s sources, especially when Gunn retweeted the image as well.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) February 1, 2023
While Swamp Thing was created by Wrightson and Len Wein, one of the horror character/superhero’s most memorable runs is Saga of the Swamp Thing (pictured above) by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, and John Totleben, where the plant-based creature is spawned from a lab accident created by biologist Alec Holland, where it also absorbs all of Holland’s memories, as things from swamps are wont to do. According to Safran, DC Studios’ Swamp Thing will “investigate the dark origins” of the character, though we don’t know exactly what origin story from the comics it will use.
Things are still in the very early days, so no news yet on when Swamp Thing will make its way to a theater near you.
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