History
During the DCU reveal press event, James Gunn and Peter Safran revealed a “Swamp Thing” film was in development. Swamp Thing is a fan favorite character that introduces a lot of the horror and mystical elements into DC comics and other media. The character even received its own series, “Swamp Thing”, which was a great success with fans but was unfortunately canceled during the first season due to budget constraints.
Tone
During Gunn’s announcement video he gave a brief description of what the upcoming film will be about. He described it as a dark horror film that will explore the origins of the character of Swamp Thing. He mentioned that although it will feel disconnected to other projects, it will still be in the greater DCU and interweave in their greater story. Peter Safran expanded on this in the press event when he said the following,
“The final film we wanted to talk about is Swamp Thing. We bring it up because it’s important to point out that in these stories, although they’re interconnected, they’re not all tonally the same. Each set of filmmakers bring their own aesthetic to these films, and the fun is seeing how these tonally different works mash up in the future.”
Peter Safran
Director
This could mean that some films within the greater DCU could have an R rating depending on the property. Not too long after the announcement for “Swamp Thing” came out, director of “Logan”, James Mangold, posted a picture of Swamp Thing to his social media. The Hollywood Reporter is now reporting that Mangold is in talks to direct the upcoming film but is not officially signed.
Thoughts
Given how beloved the original “Swamp Thing” series was, we can only imagine how much better a big budget film could be. It is great to see that the larger DCU properties will all have their own tone but still be in the same overarching story.