DC fans are about to find out what happens when the studio lets one of Batman’s most disturbing villains take over the big screen. Clayface releases in theaters just before Halloween, putting a monster at the center of a franchise better known for capes and crime-fighting. But Gotham’s shapeshifting nightmare isn’t the only DC character horror fans have been waiting to see get his own movie.
Swamp Thinghas been a particularly intriguing prospect since the project was first listed among the plans for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe. Having James Mangold, the filmmaker behind Logan, tackle the character only made the wait harder. With years passing since the project was announced and very few updates since, though, fans have understandably wanted to know whether that trip into the swamp is actually going to happen.
Ahead of Clayface, Safran confirmed to Collider’s Steven Weintraub that Swamp Thing is still moving forward with Mangold, and the studio is waiting for him to deliver a draft. He explained that the director’s work on his Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, had kept him occupied before he was ready to return to DC’s monster movie. Asked about the project’s status, Safran said:
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“It’s moving forward. Literally, we’re waiting on a draft. James Mangold’s a fantastic filmmaker — obviously one of our favorite superhero movies, but plenty of other great, great films. He was busy making his Bob Dylan movie with [Timothée] Chalamet, so we were waiting for Mangold to come up for air, and when he did, he’s like, ‘I’m ready now.’ And that was it.”
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Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Superhero Team Should You Join? Avengers · X-Men · Teen Titans · The Boys
Every team is a personality test with a uniform. One saves the world and argues about it the whole way home. One has been fighting for the right to exist since the day it formed. One is still working out who it is while the fighting happens. And one has no powers at all, plus no intention of playing fair. Eight questions decide where you actually belong.
🛡️Avengers(Marvel Studios)
🧬X-Men(Marvel)
🐦Teen Titans(DC)
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💊The Boys(Prime Video)
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01
What kind of power would you actually want? The power matters less than what you would be willing to do with it.
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02
Why join a team at all? Nobody puts on the suit for the reason they say out loud.
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03
How do you feel about the people in charge? Every team has a chain of command. Very few of them survive contact.
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04
What is your role inside a group? Every roster needs the same handful of people to function.
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05
How do you win a fight you should lose? This is the scene the entire film gets built around.
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06
What is this work costing you? Nobody does this for free. The bill just arrives differently for everyone.
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07
How should the world see your team? Half of this job is public relations, and everybody knows it.
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08
The offer arrives. What makes you say yes? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your team.
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Recruitment Is Complete Your Team Is…
Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger
for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it
would cost you to stay.
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Marvel Studios · The Avengers · Since 2012
The Avengers
You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are
loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the
room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.
The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and
reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process.
You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the
real entry requirement here.
The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement,
usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building.
When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line.
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Marvel · X-Men · Since 1963
The X-Men
You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The
X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something
in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.
This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being
wanted gone by the same people they keep saving.
You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will
not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable.
The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else
to go and are never once asked to explain themselves.
You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any.
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DC · Teen Titans · Since 1964
The Teen Titans
You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are
the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an
inconvenient side effect.
Every Titan is somebody’s sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the
villain of the week, is what the team is actually about.
You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you,
which is far less lonely than being the only one.
The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more
honest model of growing up than any other team here manages.
The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours.
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Prime Video · The Boys · Since 2019
The Boys
You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a
while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people
in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.
The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage,
patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences.
You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed
not to mention.
This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged
people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean.
You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway.
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James Mangold Has Been Working on ‘Swamp Thing’ for Years
Swamp Thing in front of a dark background Image via DC Comics
When asked to clarify that Mangold is still currently working on Swamp Thing and that the movie is in very active development, Safran answered, “Yes.” That gives fans a direct answer about both the filmmaker’s involvement and the project’s future. It also establishes where things stand: DC is awaiting a screenplay, so there is still work to do before the creature can make his theatrical return. Mangold confirmed to Collider in April 2023 that he was writing Swamp Thing, alongside his planned Star Wars movie. His involvement made the project especially appealing after Logan demonstrated how effectively he could take a familiar comic book character into more brutal territory.
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Swamp Thing offers another opportunity to build a movie around a character whose monstrous appearance is only part of the story. DC’s official character description identifies the creature as a being made of vegetation that has absorbed scientist Alec Holland’s memories, personality, and grief. That leaves plenty for Mangold to explore beyond the spectacle of bringing a plant monster to life. The character’s relationship with the natural world also opens up a very different corner of DC from the streets of Gotham.
For now, Safran’s update gives Swamp Thing fans something concrete to hold onto while they wait for more. Mangold remains involved, and the screenplay is the next step. Swamp Thing does not yet have an announced release date, while Clayface arrives in theaters on October 23. Stay tuned at Collider for more.
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Release Date
2019 – 2019-00-00
Network
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DC Universe
Directors
Deran Sarafian, Len Wiseman, Carol Banker, Greg Beeman, Michael Goi, E.L. Katz, Toa Fraser
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Writers
Doris Egan, Rob Fresco, Erin Maher, Kay Reindl, Andrew Preston, Tania Lotia
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