Jeremy Renner Joins Blumhouse’s ‘Spawn’, Directed by Todd McFarlane

After much internet rumormongering, it would appear that Jeremy Renner has indeed joined the cast of Blumhouse’s Spawn film, which will be directed by comic character creator Todd McFarlane. The early rumors had mentioned the possibility of Renner playing character Twitch Williams, police officer.

It had previously been reported that Oscar winner Jamie Foxx would be starring in the dark superhero reboot film from Blumhouse in the title role.

While speaking with Deadline, McFarlane said of the casting of both Foxx and Renner:

“As a first time director, I wanted to surround myself with the most talent and the most skilled people I can on all fronts. I was lucky enough to land Jason Blum and then Jamie Foxx, and I knew the person on screen the most is this police officer, Twitch Williams. We needed as strong a person as possible because he will be the face of the film.

I took my naïve Hollywood approach again, and said let’s start at the top and work down. Jeremy was at the top. I’m a huge fan of his. The character doesn’t need to be a bodybuilder or GQ handsome. I was looking for somebody who’s a person you’ve met before; I needed someone who can pull off the grief of an average human being. I’ve seen Jeremy do that in more than a few of his movies. He was at the top of my list, just like Jamie.

Spawn is King Arthur and Twitch is Sir Lancelot, and this isn’t about physicality, or jumping over building. This is more a brawn and brain combination, and the first film I think of with him is The Hurt Locker, the army grunt doing the job, and that spilled out into all these roles leading up to Wind River.

There was a sense of melancholy to that character that is important and that was a movie also made by a first time director, but one who wrote the thing and so wasn’t nervous about trying to get what you want. Jeremy had the experience of working with the first timer and saw that if you put a good crew together, the whole is way better than the parts and you don’t have to worry.”

Jason Blum of Blumhouse commented as well, saying:

“Jeremy is the ideal choice for Twitch Williams. He radiates honesty, intelligence and a hard-working, everyman charisma, the same qualities that make Twitch such a compelling character.”

McFarlane had previously said he hoped to start production on his R-rated Spawn reboot sometime in May.