James Mangold’s Gothic Horror ‘Swamp Thing’ Movie Still Happening After Cancellation Reports

In the current climate of major movie franchises, virtually every day that goes by without confirmation of a project existing makes it that more likely that a previously announced installment has quietly been scrapped. This has regularly been happening for the last decade with Disney films, as both Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universe projects have been reimagined or scrapped entirely. Even after Mahershala Ali was announced as the new Blade in 2019, Marvel Studios couldn’t figure out how to make it actually happen and he’s been vocal about his frustrations with the studio.

These complications aren’t limited to Disney, though, as James Gunn and Peter Safran‘s DC Studios has seen similar setbacks. Against the odds, though, this month will see the release of the R-rated horror movie Clayface, one of the more unlikely projects to come out of the franchise. Another project we’ve been waiting years for is James Mangold‘s Swamp Thing, which is seemingly still happening.

Speaking with Deadline at the premiere of Clayface, Safran was asked about the status of Swamp Thing, to which he claimed, “We’re working on it, absolutely … The script is being written as we speak. But it’s something we’re excited about. All these things take time – when you’ve already got a filmmaker involved, you’ve got to wait for their window [of availability] as well.”

The movie was first announced back in 2023, with Gunn sharing at the time, “This is a much more horrific film, but we’ll still have Swamp Thing interact with the other characters.” Since then, though, projects like Paradise Lost, The Authority, and Sgt. Rock have all been delayed indefinitely.

Swamp Thing is one of the more underrated horror characters in the DC roster, who was lucky enough to get a single-season TV series in 2019 on the DC Universe streaming platform. The show was canceled due to reported budget concerns, while the DC Universe platform was phased out and integrated into HBO Max.

Also in 2023, Mangold teased his vision for the project, explaining to Variety, “While I’m sure DC views Swamp Thing as a franchise, I would be viewing it as a very simple, clean, Gothic horror movie about this man/monster.” He admitted he had been “toying for years with the idea of making a kind of Frankenstein movie.”

To Safran’s point, though, Mangold has been busy, as he released Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in 2023 and then A Complete Unknown in 2024. He’s also attached to a Star Wars movie that was announced in 2023, which is another project that has yet to earn significant updates.