Jamie Foxx Auditioned to Play Spawn 6 Years Ago, Teases Plot of Reboot

Turns out that Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx knew everything about the character Spawn before he got the part in the upcoming Blumhouse reboot film. He, in his own words, even went so far as to ‘find’ character creator Todd McFarlane 6 years ago.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Foxx elaborated on doing his research before traveling to Phoenix to ‘throw his hat in the ring’ to play the iconic crimson cloaked anti-hero.

Six years ago, I flew to Phoenix to find this man and throw my hat in the ring. I had done all my research on Spawn. I know everything about the character and what he had done. He was taken aback. I said, “Whatever you decide to do, I wanna be first up.” And what I tried to do is stay artistically in shape. Of course, there’s the aesthetic sense of what Spawn is, but in the cerebral sense, in [Todd McFarlane’s] script, Twitch [to be played by Jeremy Renner] is going through something.

He prays to God, nothing happens. Should he pray to the devil? Spawn interjects himself into Twitch’s life and Twitch says, “Who are you?” I said that I want to stay artistically in shape so I can deliver the line or the feeling. “I’m both. I’m good and I’m evil. I was blessed by God but I was raised by the devil.” When I explained that to him, those years back, luckily it stayed with him.

Even when he was still met with the task of finding who it was, I said, “I challenge anyone out there not to make it competitive. I challenge anyone who was more ready. More ready to give everything. Because you can’t challenge someone as far as who’s the better actor. Because there’s always better actors, better actresses.” It’s what you bring. Things worked out.

THR then asked Foxx when filming was set to start, and he responded with a bit of new information.  Apparently stuntman Clay Fontenot will be tackling the suited/stunt portion of the character.

We’re not sure of the start date but we’ve already started crafting things. Clay Fontenot, who was the stunt guy in the Iron Man suit, he’s crafting Spawn now. That’s the exciting part. When you see it, he’s gonna have his own identity.

The Spawn portion of the interview ended with a question regarding the social and political themes included in some of the more recent Blumhouse films, and whether or not those would be included within this reboot film.

That would be left up to Todd as far as what he wants it to look like. I’m a soldier in this. Whatever battle we go into, I’m locked and loaded.

Early reports have the film, which will be directed by McFarlane, releasing sometime in 2019.