Kevin Smith, a proud geek if there ever was one, is making a new TV series set in the same universe as the hellish anti-hero Spawn. The show, which is in development at BBC America, will focus on Sam and Twitch, two street-level cops that try to enforce the law in Spawn’s grim, supernatural New York City.
BBC America’s president, Sarah Barnett, spilled the beans in an interview with Deadline. “Well, we’ve got some high-profile talent that we have attached to a show that we’re doing,” she teased. “It’s Kevin Smith. We’re super excited about him.”
Barnett explained that the show will be based on Sam and Twitch, two Spawn characters first introduced in the ‘90s who briefly headlined their own comic series in the early 2000s. Their normal, non-superpowered detective work in the midst of an exaggerated fantastical setting is a bit of a forerunner to DC’s acclaimed Gotham Central series, and in a way, the new Powerless TV show. It’s a fair bet that Sam and Twitch will be much, much darker, however.
“They were originally introduced in Spawn, and it’s Todd McFarlane’s comic book series about these big-city homicide detectives who face a series of super grizzly crimes that are connected to the occult,” Barnett told Deadline. “It’s kind of frightening and sort of gallows humor. It’s, again, procedural, but in a very modern, contemporary way. So each episode is closed ended, although there are certain character-serialized aspects to the storytelling.”
Sam and Twitch.
It’s far from the first time that Smith has worked on a comic adaptation. He’s written comics, was attached to a canned Superman movie at one point, and Arrowverse fans have enjoyed his work on The Flash and Supergirl.
Barnett says that Smith, who is writing, directing, and executive producing the new show, is “beyond himself excited about this.”
There aren’t many additional details about the new series yet, and we don’t know how much Spawn we should expect in this Spawn spin-off. There is a new Spawn movie in the works, but it’s unclear if it will be connected to Sam and Twitch at all.
