Is Swamp Thing officially cooked? James Gunn speaks on how James Mangold’s Paramount deal may effect his upcoming project for the DC Universe.
There were a lot of surprising projects announced for the DC Universe during James Gunn’s initial slate reveal. However, perhaps the most odd as the reveal that James Mangold would be helming a horror-focused Swamp Thing movie for the franchise. One of the biggest parts of that is that Mangold already had quite a few projects on his plate at the time with rival studios like Paramount and Disney.
While news on Swamp Thing has been slow due to these prior obligations, a massive spanner has seemingly been thrown into the plans for the project following an announcement that James Mangold has signed an overall deal to develop films to Paramount. This immediately threw into question how the deal would affect other projects he’s signed onto, such as working with James Gunn in the DC Universe and his long-awaited Star Wars film.
Is Swamp Thing Cancelled?
Following the initial hailstorm on social media, James Gunn spoke about James Mangold’s new deal with Paramount in an interview with the Rolling Stone. The helmer revealed that the contract doesn’t explicitly stop James Mangold from directing Swamp Thing for the DC Universe. However, he seems to stop short of saying the film is a guarantee.
“No, no, it doesn’t [disqualify it]. No.” Gunn explained before adding. “Yeah [I hope it becomes a reality], I mean, yeah, totally. Absolutely. Yeah. We’ve talked to him. He’s still invested. So we’ll see. Some things take a long time. We’ll see what happens.”
The issue with James Mangold’s new Paramount contract likely isn’t exceptions that mean he can’t develop new projects for something like the DC Universe. Rather, there are likely factors incentivizing him to deliver projects for the studio fairly soon following the ink drying on the contract. So while Swamp Thing may be in the works, it’ll likely be a while before James Gunn provides any further updates on it.
Swamp Thing is currently in development at DC Studios. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the future of the DC Universe and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
