Todd McFarlane Shares Hopes for New Spawn Video Game and Reveals What He Wants to Make It Happen (Exclusive)
Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has opened up about his aspirations for the comic book character to get a new standalone video game in the future. Since being introduced in 1992, Spawn has made countless appearances in various games. While some of these games were dedicated entirely to Spawn, others, such as his involvement in Mortal Kombat 11, SoulCalibur 2, and, in the near future, Diablo Immortal, have arguably been the most popular starring the character. And although McFarlane isn’t opposed to Spawn showing up in other established gaming franchises moving forward, he also wants to have Spawn get a game of his own.
Speaking to ComicBook ahead of Spawn’s addition to Diablo Immortal, McFarlane said he very much wants a new game based on the famed anti-hero to happen. Although there seemingly aren’t any plans for such a game right now, McFarlane explained that he wouldn’t want this potential project to even be that drastically different from other superhero titles that have been released over the past few years. Instead, he just demanded that this Spawn game be, at a minimum, “five percent different” from other games to make it stand out as its own.
As for what this Spawn game may center around, McFarlane broadly pitched the idea of Spawn appearing across various eras in history. In one level, Spawn could show up in the Wild West as GunSlinger, while other stages could see him exploring a futuristic sci-fi world or traversing through medieval times. All of these elements have been explored in Spawn comics over the years, but such a choice for a video game would be a much different than what has been seen before.
Speaking of which, while Spawn video games have happened in the past, it’s been over two decades since the last standalone title associated with the character was released. That game, 2003’s Spawn: Armageddon, was published by Namco across PS2, Xbox, and GameCube platforms and received somewhat middling reviews upon its arrival. Prior to this, a handful of other Spawn action games launched across Game Boy, Super Nintendo, and Sega Dreamcast, but similar to Armageddon, none of these titles ended up doing very well commercially or critically.
For this reason, Spawn is still looking for his marquee video game that fans of the series can latch onto. With superhero characters like Spider-Man and Wolverine having recently received standalone games of their own and others such as Blade and Iron Man getting theirs in the future, the market arguably seems more ripe than ever for a Spawn video game. Whether or not McFarlane will be able to find a developer and publisher to make this dream become a reality in the near future, though, remains to be seen.