Draft:Swamp Thing (upcoming film)

Swamp Thing is an upcoming American superhero film based on DC Comics featuring the character Swamp Thing. Produced by DC Studios and to be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it will be a film in the DC Universe (DCU) and a reboot of the Swamp Thing film series. The film is being written and directed by James Mangold.

DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran announced a new film based on Swamp Thing in January 2023. Mangold was in talks to write and direct the film at that time and was confirmed that April when he had begun writing. The film is an origin story for the character with a Gothic horror tone different from other DCU projects, primarily influenced by Alan Moore's 1984–85 The Saga of the Swamp Thing comic book run.

Swamp Thing will be released theatrically in the United States. It will be part of the DCU's Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.

Development
Writer/director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran were announced as the co-chairs and co-CEOs of the newly formed DC Studios at the end of October 2022. A week after starting their new roles, the pair had begun working with a group of writers to develop an eight-to-ten-year plan for a new DC Universe (DCU). Around that time, director James Mangold contacted Gunn and Safran to see if there was room for a new Swamp Thing film in their DCU plan. Mangold wanted to make a standalone Gothic horror film with elements of film noir, taking inspiration from Frankenstein (1818) and RoboCop (1987), which showed a man waking up as a monster. His interest in working on a DCU project was publicly reported in December. On January 31, 2023, Gunn and Safran unveiled the first projects from their DCU slate, which begins with Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. One of the films in that chapter was revealed to be a new Swamp Thing film that would explore the character's origin story. Gunn and Safran said it would be a horror film and tonally different from the other DCU projects. Gunn added that the film would take specific inspiration from Alan Moore's 1984–85 The Saga of the Swamp Thing comic book run. After the announcement, Mangold posted a picture of Swamp Thing on social media. He was confirmed to be in negotiations to write and direct the film the next day, but was not expected to start work until he had completed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) and the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. Mangold said in April that he had begun writing the script. He was working on a planned Star Wars film at the same time, and was unsure which project would move forward first. Gunn described Swamp Thing as a passion project for Mangold.

Release
Swamp Thing is scheduled to be released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States. It will be part of the DCU's Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.