Todd McFarlane Is Scheming His Way Towards A Spawn-Venom Crossover

Todd McFarlane has an idea for a Spawn-Venom crossover, and if you can get into contact with anyone at Sony Pictures, it appears he would like to speak with you.

Development on the McFarlane-directed Spawn movie is accelerating now that Jamie Foxx has been cast in the lead role of Spawn, aka Al Simmons. But the comic book artist's movie still needs a distributor, and McFarlane has a pretty wild strategy for getting one.

Speaking in an interview with CBR, the comic book artist threw out a self-described "big 'What If'" scenario, imagining a future in which Sony's Venom and his Spawn cross paths on the big screen.

"Here's a big 'What If,'" McFarlane said. "What if Sony distributes Spawn? Then is it possible that in the future Sony could have a crossover with Venom and Spawn? It's possible. So, I will be presenting that possibility to the Sony executives when we get ready."

The character of Venom was created in part by Todd McFarlane, with Spawn being entirely his own intellectual property. But that personal history with the symbiotic Spider-Man villain doesn't mean Sony has been cozying up with the artist, as McFarlane also stated that he hasn't been in contact with the studio for any consultations about the Venom movie. 

To help rectify the situation, McFarlane proposed an idea during the interview that he hoped would get Sony's attention, perhaps bringing him and his Spawn movie to the table for a distribution deal — and maybe more. 

"Let's say Venom is huge — I hope it is," McFarlane said. "Then no matter who distributes Spawn, the first thing you will see in every trailer will be, 'From the co-creator of Venom.' So, then my question to Sony is, why would you let one of your competitors use that line, given that it was your effort that made Venom work?"

McFarlane finished off his pitch elegantly by offering his skills as a director on a potential team-up project — a masterful bit of self-marketing in the middle of a routine interview.

"I think it's worth asking, then, what happens if they both work?" he asked. "And then what happens ten years down the line, when they want to do a Spawn/Venom crossover and they get the guy who helped create both those characters to direct it? Might be kind of cool."

'Might be kind of cool,' indeed. We've got to say — we thoroughly respect this hustle. Get that work, McFarlane. This is far from the worst idea we've heard today. 

If this Tom Hardy Venom does well enough to really warrant a sequel and an ongoing spot in a Sony superhero universe, then yeah, frankly, this could indeed be fun. Is it going to happen? Well... stranger things have happened... stranger things indeed. But realistically? Almost definitely not.

Venom will be out in theaters on October 5. McFarlane's Spawn is expected to follow sometime in 2019.