Director James Mangold Confirms SWAMP THING Will Be a Standalone Gothic Horror Movie

Director James Mangold (Logan, Ford v Ferrari) has shared new details about his upcoming Swamp Thing movie for DC Studios.

Mangold shared in a recent interview with MovieWeb that he’s approaching the project as a “standalone” Gothic horror tale, distinct from the broader interconnected plans of the DC Universe.

Mangold is looking to craft something fresh with his Swamp Thing movie, and when talking about that he said:

“Swamp Thing at DC, it's just a matter of—do we find a way on the page to say something original? While I'm sure DC views Swamp Thing as a franchise, I would be viewing it as a very simple, clean, Gothic horror movie about this man/monster. Just doing my own thing with this, just a standalone.”

I like the idea of a grounded and gritty self-contained approach to Swamp Thing. It’s ok to make comic book movies that do stand on their own, that don’t have to connect to a larger universe. This is something I’d like to see both Marvel and DC do more of.

Gunn has previously hinted at the flexibility of DC Studios’ slate of film, so a standalone Swamp Thing could still pave the way for future projects like Justice League Dark.

The director also talked about his ability to move fluidly between genres, and he point that out as a key strength of his filmmaking. He said:

“Part of the joy is that you learn a lot when you are changing genres or the vernacular in some of the way you communicate in your art. I’ve learned a lot, whether it’s making an action film, or whether it’s making a Western and bringing those energies to a kind of superhero film or Marvel film.”

He went on to say: “You not only learn things making one genre, but then you learn how to carry over lessons from that genre into another one that you might not expect.”

I’m just excited to see how Mangold is looking to explore the dark and eerie world of Swamp Thing.

The filmmaker previously said that he no agenda of building a cinematic universe for Swamp Thing, he just has a story that he wants to tell. He compared it to RoboCop,:

“It’s no different speech than anyone else gets with me; I don’t have any agenda for a universe, I’m not building towards someone joining in some future.

“Have at it, but I’d just be interested in telling, I’ve always been interested in doing a version of Frankenstein, basically, and, yet, I feel, ‘It’s alive!’ has been done enough, but Swamp Thing always occurred to me as this wonderful version of a Frankenstein story, much in the way one of my favorite pop films of growing up, RoboCop, the original one.

“This guy who just wakes up and he’s been turned into, he finds he’s become this machine, was also something I was fascinated with with Logan, obviously.”

Mangold went on to say that he likes the idea of making Swamp Thing a “noir, mystery, horror film about a guy who wakes up and he’s this thing.” He added:

“There’s an amnesiac quality of, ‘How did I get here and who did this to me?’ So I’m envisioning a horror-noir film following a creature that can’t be seen, trying to piece together from fragments of memories, what happened and who did it.

“And none of this runs counter to the Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson and all the great work that went on...I’m just framing it up in a new movie context, but that’s all they were exploring in these comics and so beautifully.”

Details about the plot remain under wraps, but the film will explore the tragic origins of Swamp Thing and I’m sure the story will blend horror and humanity in a very atmospheric story.

No release date has been announced yet, but with Mangold at the helm, Swamp Thing is sure to bring something hauntingly awesome to the DC Universe.