It’s been 23 years since we last saw Spawn, the undead superhero created by Todd McFarlane, on the big screen. McFarlane has been talking about a reboot since 2007, and it looked like things were finally falling into place. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx and Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner were attached back in 2018, with Foxx slated to play the chain-wielding revenant. But it seems McFarlane may have just revealed that Foxx is no longer involved in the project.

In an interview with Shoryuken, McFarlane was discussing his character’s inclusion as a DLC character in the blockbuster fighting game Mortal Kombat 11 when he let this slip:

“Last week I got some discouraging news, we had an academy award-winning guy who was going to do the movie with us, but he fell off. We had people willing to fund the movie as long as we had this guy attached but schedules were conflicting, and things had to change. That’s how close we are to getting this thing off the ground.”

While I must emphasize that McFarlane is not officially confirming anything in this quote, it seems likely that he’s referring to Foxx. With a big star like Foxx attached, funding for a Spawn movie would definitely fall into place. But with him gone, it makes total sense that investors would back out as well. Spawn seemingly can’t catch a break – prior to McFarlane’s announcement of a reboot, plans for a sequel to the 1997 dried up after languishing for nearly a decade in development hell. It looks like we won’t be seeing him chain-whip the bejeesus out of bad guys onscreen anytime soon.