'Swamp Thing' DC Universe Show: Casting Reveals New Plot Details

The upcoming live-action Swamp Thing is still far away, but an apparent leak could shed some light on the direction the show is taking. That Hashtag Show, a YouTube show covering geek culture, reported that a source close to the show shared some details about Abby Arcane and Alec Holland, the two lead characters of the show.

Two star-crossed scientists

According to the source, Abby is described as a 30-something worker at the Center for Disease Control. The center sends her back to her hometown of Houma to research a flu epidemic sweeping the area. A woman with a secret and troubled past, Abby lost her mother at an early age and was shuffled through the foster care system until she graduated high school and left Houma behind for medical school.

Alec is also 30-something and a researcher for the Sunderland Corporation, assigned to Houma under the auspice of building a hospital. He and Abby immediately form a close emotional bond. When Alec and the researchers of the Sunderland Corporation find a link between the flu and the nearby Houma swamp, the townspeople of Houma respond with hostility.

Swamp Thing’s origin story draws from both the comics and the movie

In the 1982 Swamp Thing film, Alec Holland was transformed into Swamp Thing after a terrible scientific accident turns him into a monstrous plant creature. Meanwhile that same year, Alan Moore, the writer of Watchmen, was hired to write Swamp Thing comic. Moore introduced a fantastical backstory which has since become a hallmark of the comic series.

Moore’s Swamp Thing was an elemental born of the swamp. In this version, Alec Holland threw himself into the swamp after a bomb lights his body on fire. As Holland died, the mystical plants in the swamp became imprinted with Holland’s consciousness and memories and arose as the Swamp Thing. This Swamp Thing was also part of the Parliament of Trees, a community of elementals that existed long before man walked the Earth, and their collective minds live in an primordial dimension called The Green.

From the character descriptions, it appears Moore’s origin story was done away with in favor of the film’s concept, which portrays Swamp Thing as Holland mutated into a plant golem However, the official synopsis of the show suggests that it still will be incorporating Moore’s fantasy overtones.

A romance harkening to A Shape of Water

Yep, Abby is definitely going to fall in love with Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing will be a horror series

Swamp Thing is latest addition to DC Universe, an upcoming streaming service which will also feature a variety of shows including Titans, Young Justice: Outsiders, Harley Quinn, and Doom Patrol. Executive producer James Wan, best known for the Saw series, has tweeted that Swamp Thing will definitely be focused on the horror elements of the comics.

This could mean that occult investigator John Constantine, another fan favorite creation of Alan Moore, could very well make an appearance on the show.

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Swamp Thing is scheduled to release some time in 2019.