A Swamp Thing film was one of the first projects announced when James Gunn unveiled the Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters TV and film slate for the DCU. But like several other projects on that list, the Swamp Thing film has seemingly made very little progress since DC Comics uploaded Gunn's video to YouTube in January 2023.
James Mangold (Logan, Walk the Line) is attached to write and direct the film, but Gunn recently admitted that while the project hasn't been canceled, Mangold became too busy with other projects to focus on Swamp Thing. Now, nearly three years later, it sounds as if Mangold is finally focusing on the Avatar of The Green.
While on his press tour for Superman, Gunn updated the status of Swamp Thing, stating, "We talked to James the other day. No, he hasn't delivered a script. He's been distracted with his billion of movies. But we're talking about it again."
An actor who's been campaigning to play Alec Holland almost since the project was first announced is Daredevil: Born Again actor Vincent D'Onofrio, who portrays Kingpin. And he's recently vocalized his desire yet again on social media. Is this an indication that development on Swamp Thing is about to pick up in earnest?
D'Onofrio made similar social media posts back in April of this year and also made statements at Dragon Con 2024, remarking, "Obviously, I like Marvel too because that's my job. My comic books when I was a kid were Captain America, Spider-Man, Swamp Thing, and Batman. Swamp-Thing...I would really like to play Swamp Thing."
With the amount of time that's passed, it's possible that Mangold may have taken the project in a new direction, but he initially described Swamp Thing as a dark origin story for the iconic character, albeit one that wouldn't necessarily seek an R-rating. He also touched on the DC hero having direct parallels to Frankenstein, with themes of abject loneliness and deformation.
As of now, there is no confirmed release date for Swamp Thing. And with Mangold set to helm a new Star Wars film, it's unclear when he'll have time to write the script and go into production.
Gunn previously disclosed that the project would be taking inspiration from Alan Moore's Absolute Swamp Thing Vol. 1.