Todd McFarlane Reveals an Unreleased SPAWN Animated Movie with Keith David and Mark Hamill Is Waiting to Be Completed

There have been plenty of updates over the years about Todd McFarlane's long-awaited Spawn reboot, but here's one that came completely out of left field. It turns out there's already a Spawn animated movie that's essentially finished, starring Keith David and Mark Hamill, and it's been sitting in a box waiting for the right moment.

For fans of HBO's Spawn animated series, that's a pretty wild revelation. It's been 27 years since the groundbreaking HBO series aired its final episode, and for many fans it remains the definitive version of Spawn.

Dark, violent, atmospheric, and unapologetically mature, the series captured everything that made McFarlane's comic so compelling.

Keith David's commanding performance as Al Simmons became inseparable from the character, and the show still holds up as one of the best adult animated comic book adaptations ever made.

While McFarlane has spent years trying to get a new live-action Spawn movie off the ground following the 1997 film starring Michael Jai White, he revealed to ComicBook that he actually has an unreleased animated feature that's much closer to becoming reality than anyone realized.

When asked whether he'd ever considered continuing either the 1997 movie or the HBO animated series through the comics, McFarlane explained why he'd rather continue those stories on screen.

"No, not really, because I'd rather do the sequels on screen. Sure, you're like going, okay, let's just get more animation out, right, and let's do the follow-up of the animation on it, because I don't know if I've ever said, we developed, we were in the process of developing the return of this Spawn animation a while back. And then we, I got in a fight at the very end with the production and the lawyer, so I just bought it all back."

The biggest surprise is just how far along the project actually is. According to McFarlane, the voice work has already been completed, and very little remains before it could be finished.

"So I actually have a 90-minute animated show that's all been drawn, minus the cells. All the voices have been done. Everything, like, we're ready. All we need is a little bit of Foley, which is sound effects and stuff, and then hand it to a studio to actually draw, right?

“We're like, it's just been sitting in a box waiting to go. I have just been sitting on that going, no, I think I need to get like the movie out, and then boom, once the movie comes out, if there's any success, then come out with that, but it's sitting there.

“So anybody that wants to do animation, the first thing I'm going to do is say, hey, I've got this ready to tee up. We could get there real fast if we just take what's in this box right now because I bought it all back."

Keith David returned as Spawn and Mark Hamill voices Detective Twitch Williams, taking over the role that was originally performed by Michael McShane in the HBO series.

McFarlane also shared a story about directing Hamill during the recording sessions. At the time, Hamill was becoming known for his animated voice work, but McFarlane wasn't interested in hearing one of his larger-than-life character performances.

"Yes, and Mark Hamill. Let me tell you the Mark Hamill story. So Mark Hamill plays Twitch. He's one of the detectives, right, and that's so cool, but Mark Hamill, like I'm going way back.

“I'm sure you remember, this is when he's just starting to do animated voiceover,. And he's sitting in the booth, and he starts doing his animated stuff, and I'm like, no, that's not it. You just need to relax, and basically I was hiring actors to act, and then he'd do his me, me, me.

“And it was like, no, no, I just need you. And after about 15 minutes of me rejecting him, right, finally he just went, oh my God, Todd. So what do you want me to do? And I'm like, that's the voice."

Hamill is famous for transforming his voice into unforgettable characters like the Joker, but McFarlane simply wanted him to sound like an exhausted detective doing his job.

He continued: "He's like, that's my regular voice in my mind. That's what I've been saying. I just want you to act. I didn't hire you for a cute voice. I hired you, Mark Hamill, to act this voice, like, just read the lines like you were an actor and a tired detective.

"Yeah, and I played him, like, a few messages from a lawyer. I knew that was sort of a little bit melancholy when he talked. Yeah, and I go, if you want to slow it down a little bit, and then he went, 'so I just talk like me.

“That's it', and he nailed it after that. That was easy because I'm just, I'm being Mark. All right. Ding ding ding ding ding ding."

For those who never experienced the HBO series, Spawn ran for three seasons between 1997 and 1999 and followed Al Simmons, an elite soldier who is murdered and makes a deal with the demon Malebolgia so he can see his wife one last time.

The bargain comes with a devastating price. Simmons returns to Earth years later as the Hellspawn, physically transformed and caught in an endless battle between Heaven and Hell while struggling to hold onto what remains of his humanity.

The series leaned heavily into horror, noir, and psychological drama, creating an adaptation that felt far more mature than most comic book projects of its era. Keith David's unforgettable performance, the haunting animation, and the oppressive atmosphere helped make it a cult classic that's still celebrated today.

Knowing there's a feature-length continuation sitting on a shelf with Keith David and Mark Hamill already having recorded their performances is almost surreal. Hopefully McFarlane eventually finds the right partner to finish it because this feels like exactly the kind of project Spawn would love to see.

Considering how beloved the HBO series remains, it would be a shame if this animated movie stayed locked away forever.