As Image Comics prepares for its 35th anniversary next year, 2027 also marks 35 years since the debut of Spawn. The creator of both iconic comic entities, Todd McFarlane, remains incredibly busy as these celebratory dates loom. The Image Comics co-founder and founder of McFarlane Toys keeps a lot of plates spinning but thankfully took the time to speak with us at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 to provide an update on his latest projects. In an exclusive interview with Den of Geek, McFarlane teases what’s next for Spawn, unveils the latest product line at McFarlane Toys, and offers his thoughts on the long-gestating Spawn cinematic reboot.
The next big thing for Spawn on the immediate horizon is Spawn 77, a comic book limited series by McFarlane and collaborator Mark Spears set to debut this September with a 64-page supersized inaugural issue. The series is based on the original sketches McFarlane made of Spawn as a teenager in 1977, 15 years before the superhero made his official comic book debut. While McFarlane Toys has since released an action figure based on these sketches, it was Spears’ idea to release a comic book story surrounding this version of the character. Spears provides the comic book with gorgeous painted interior artwork while co-writing the story with McFarlane and its exploration of the hellish world before Al Simmons took on the mantle of Spawn in 1992.
“One of the things that he wanted to do, as a tribute, was set it in 1977 New York, which is the gritty, ugly world of New York that you see in all of those cool movies I watched as a kid when I was growing up,” teases McFarlane, while explaining the storytelling rules he provided Spears in respecting the main series’ established mythology. “I don’t want to diminish the character of Al Simmons. I don’t want the world to think that there was a hellspawn 15 years earlier, because it diminishes him. If we can come up with a story that is true to the mythology of what I’ve set up about the legend prior to Al Simmons, because he hasn’t come yet, and it’s not a true hellspawn.”
Spawn 77 joins a growing number of Spawn comic book series published through Image that have significantly expanded the fan-favorite superhero universe over the past several years. All linked in the same continuity, these titles explore different facets of the world that McFarlane created, from the popular Wild West character Gunslinger Spawn headlining his own book to other hellspawn getting their own adventures. For McFarlane, there wasn’t a worry that this would dilute Spawn but instead let the character resume his focus on solo adventures while adding to the universe.
“It felt like Spawn was becoming a little bit like a team-up book,” McFarlane recalls. “I think Spawn works best when he’s a solo act. As part of that expansion, I also gave Spawn another book, King Spawn. Now that I’ve got even more breathing space to show who Spawn is. Gunslinger Spawn, who I thought could be a breakout character, deserved some more room. The Scorched, to me, was a place where it was technically a team-up book and I could rotate different characters coming in and out.”
On the McFarlane Toys end, the company has unveiled a new line of highly detailed and accessory-loaded figures under the banner McFarlane Elite Edition. With the price of, well, everything increasing, the line was created to cater to toy collectors rather than compromising on the quality of the toys themselves. While retailing for a higher price point, the toys are not only more impressively rendered but include features like signed items that are more than worth the price of purchase alone.
“It’s us being able to make the toy exactly the way that we think the toy should be made,” McFarlane observes. “Instead of doing everything more cheaply, what if we made another division called the Elite Division? The price is going to go up, but it’ll let us make the figure the way that we want, give extra accessory pieces and get the articulation down, maybe throwing in a card or a signature in there. We’re actually doing a value box that hopefully people will respond to, saying that they got a lot for their money.”
One of the longstanding projects that McFarlane has been working on is a cinematic reboot of the character, following the 1997 superhero movie. With Jamie Foxx attached to play the hellish superhero, McFarlane notes that the project is still very much in the scripting phase, and the creator is looking for a screenplay that captures his dark and creepy vision for the character. Without having to worry about the property being tied to a corporate entity like DC and Marvel’s library of characters, McFarlane is holding out until the project goes all-in on how vicious and twisted Spawn can truly be.
“I’m not bound by having to worry about some big licensing program that’s out there in the world. I just want a cool movie and if that means I don’t sell a single T-shirt, that’s okay.” McFarlane notes. “Jamie can still do that level of intense acting that I think needs to come. There’s a love story component to the Spawn character and if you watch something like Django Unchained and you see the scenes in that movie where he sees them doing something to his wife but he can’t do anything about it, I feel the burn in his eyes. I feel that anger welling up inside of him as a character and that’s what I’m trying to harness.”
