James Mangold’s Swamp Thing Is Still Alive as DC Confirms the Script Is Being Written
James Mangold’s Swamp Thing hasn’t disappeared beneath the murky waters of development hell just yet. More than three years after the filmmaker was announced as the man bringing DC’s resident plant monster back to cinemas, DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran has confirmed that the project remains active and that a screenplay is currently being written.
Speaking to Deadline at the premiere of Clayface, Safran was asked about the long-gestating project and offered a reassuring update. “We’re working on it, absolutely,” Safran said, confirming that the script is being written and that DC remains excited about the film. He also acknowledged one of the realities facing the project: once a particular filmmaker is attached, the studio also has to wait until that person’s schedule provides an opportunity to actually make it.
That filmmaker is hardly sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. Mangold’s career has moved between comic-book movies, blockbusters and more character-driven filmmaking, with credits including Logan, The Wolverine, Ford v Ferrari and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. His proposed Swamp Thing, however, has always sounded considerably removed from the traditional superhero blockbuster.
Mangold previously described his approach as a “simple, clean, Gothic horror movie” centred upon the relationship between a man and a monster. He has also spoken about having wanted to make his own kind of Frankenstein story, with Swamp Thing providing the perfect opportunity. Although the movie was announced as part of the DC Universe’s opening Gods and Monsters chapter, Mangold has indicated that he wants it to function primarily as a standalone story rather than becoming consumed by the mechanics of a shared universe.
That approach makes plenty of sense because Swamp Thing was horror long before Hollywood started putting superheroes into interconnected cinematic universes.
The character began with an eight-page story by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson in House of Secrets #92 in 1971. That original Swamp Thing was Alex Olsen, a scientist transformed into a monstrous swamp creature following an explosion and unable to reveal his identity to the woman he loved. Wein and Wrightson subsequently reworked the idea for the ongoing Swamp Thing comic in 1972, introducing Alec Holland and establishing much of the mythology that would become associated with the character.
Those early comics were steeped in Gothic horror, tragedy and classic monster storytelling, introducing important characters including Anton Arcane, Abigail Arcane and Matthew Cable. Swamp Thing might exist within the DC Universe, but his roots were always much closer to Frankenstein’s Monster and the Creature from the Black Lagoon than Superman.
Then Alan Moore arrived.
Beginning his celebrated run on The Saga of the Swamp Thing in the 1980s, Moore radically redefined the character. His famous story The Anatomy Lesson revealed that Swamp Thing wasn’t simply Alec Holland transformed into vegetation. The creature was plant life that had absorbed Holland’s memories and consciousness, fundamentally changing what readers thought Swamp Thing actually was. Moore and artists including Stephen Bissette and John Totleben pushed the series deeper into psychological horror, environmental themes, mysticism and increasingly ambitious storytelling. The run became one of the landmark achievements of modern horror comics and remains hugely influential.
Swamp Thing had already reached cinemas by then. Wes Craven wrote and directed Swamp Thing in 1982, years before A Nightmare on Elm Street turned him into one of horror’s biggest names. Ray Wise played Alec Holland before his transformation, with Dick Durock taking over as Swamp Thing. Adrienne Barbeau starred as Alice Cable, while Louis Jourdan played Anton Arcane. The story saw Holland working on a bioengineering formula in the Louisiana swamps before Arcane’s attack resulted in him being covered in chemicals, set ablaze and transformed into the hulking creature.
Craven’s film is an interesting hybrid of comic-book adventure, monster movie and horror, made at a time when superhero cinema hadn’t remotely settled into the form audiences recognise today. The practical Swamp Thing costume inevitably reflects its period and budget, but Durock’s physical performance gave the creature considerable presence, while Barbeau and Jourdan helped provide the movie with exactly the kind of colourful genre credentials it needed.
Seven years later came something considerably stranger.
The Return of Swamp Thing arrived in 1989 under director Jim Wynorski, with Durock returning beneath the vegetation and Jourdan somehow returning as Arcane despite the minor inconvenience of apparently dying in the previous movie. Heather Locklear joined the cast as Abby Arcane, while Sarah Douglas played Dr Lana Zurrell. This time Arcane was conducting genetic experiments in his quest to defeat ageing, producing bizarre creatures known as the Un-Men and eventually targeting Abby as part of his plans.
The sequel embraced a noticeably lighter and campier tone than Craven’s film. Its opening credits even parade comic-book imagery across the screen to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Born on the Bayou, immediately signalling that solemnity wasn’t necessarily going to be the evening’s priority. It’s an eccentric piece of late-1980s comic-book cinema, but Durock’s return provided continuity and ensured that an entire generation received its cinematic Swamp Thing covered in practical rubber rather than pixels.
The character has subsequently appeared in television, most notably in the darker 2019 live-action Swamp Thing series, but Mangold’s project would represent the first theatrical film devoted to the character since The Return of Swamp Thing.
For now, however, patience is required. Safran’s comments don’t provide a production date, cast, release date or confirmation of when Mangold will actually be available to direct. What they do establish is that Swamp Thing remains part of DC Studios’ plans and that screenplay work is continuing.
After 37 years away from cinema screens, another few years probably won’t bother Swamp Thing. He’s a walking pile of vegetation living in a swamp. Waiting around is practically the job description.
