Todd McFarlane Reveals What He Wants From a New SPAWN Video Game

Todd McFarlane wants Spawn back in the video game spotlight, and not just as a guest character dropping into somebody else’s franchise. The creator of the hell-powered antihero wants Spawn to get another standalone game, and he already has some ideas for what could make it work.

Spawn has been kicking around video games for decades, but some of his biggest gaming appearances have come as a guest fighter or crossover character.

He battled his way into SoulCalibur II, joined the roster of Mortal Kombat 11, and is headed to Diablo Immortal. McFarlane is happy to keep those crossovers coming, but he’d also like to see someone finally take another shot at building an entire game around Spawn.

While speaking with ComicBook ahead of Spawn’s arrival in Diablo Immortal, McFarlane explained that he’d love to see a new Spawn video game happen. There doesn’t appear to be anything currently in development, but his expectations for the concept are pretty straightforward.

McFarlane doesn’t think developers need to completely reinvent superhero games to make Spawn work. He simply wants the project to have enough of its own identity to separate it from everything else on the market. According to McFarlane, it only needs to be “five percent different.”

One way to accomplish that could be by taking advantage of the massive mythology McFarlane and company have built around Spawn since the character debuted in 1992.

His idea could send players tearing through different periods of history, opening the door to some wild changes in locations, enemies, weapons, and versions of Spawn. One section could head into the Old West with Gunslinger Spawn, while another could jump into a futuristic sci-fi setting. Medieval eras could also come into play.

Those worlds already have roots in the Spawn comics, so a game could pull directly from decades of material while constantly changing what players see and experience. It’s an especially fun possibility when you consider how many different Spawn characters and time periods are available to play with.

It has also been a very long time since Spawn had a major game to call his own. The last standalone release was Spawn: Armageddon in 2003. Published by Namco, the action game launched on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube, but it received mixed reviews and never became the defining Spawn gaming experience fans were hoping for.

Earlier Spawn games also appeared on platforms including the Game Boy, Super Nintendo, and Sega Dreamcast. None managed to turn the character into a major video game franchise, leaving Spawn without a signature gaming hit despite more than three decades of popularity in comics.

Superhero games have become a much bigger part of the industry, with characters such as Spider-Man getting major standalone adventures, Wolverine getting his own game, and projects centered on Blade and Iron Man also entering the mix.

Spawn would be perfect for that kind of treatment. He has supernatural powers, brutal combat, monsters, demons, huge weapons, bizarre alternate versions, and more than 30 years of mythology to mine for stories and locations. A developer wouldn’t exactly be hurting for material.

For now, McFarlane’s Spawn video game remains something he wants rather than an announced project. The big question is whether the right developer and publisher will eventually come along and make it happen.

After more than 20 years without a standalone Spawn game, it would be great to see the character finally get another shot, especially if somebody runs with McFarlane’s idea of throwing Spawn across wildly different eras.

Gunslinger Spawn blasting through the Wild West before the game throws us into some insane futuristic hellscape? Yeah, I’d play that!