Already, Todd McFarlane’s upcoming Spawn reboot is a picture that many a genre fan is hugely looking forward to. And now, to add even further to the excitement, Greg mother-flippin’ Nicotero has joined the fun.

Nicotero is an absolute icon of the genre world, particularly when it comes to his legendary SXF work. In addition to having directed a whole host of The Walking Dead episodes, Nicotero’s famed make-up and SFX work has been seen in the likes of The Walking Dead (duh!), Preacher, the Evil Dead franchise, the Halloween franchise, the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, the Phantasm franchise, the Re-Animator franchise, the Creepshow franchise, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, the Scream franchise, the From Dusk Till Dawn franchise, the Amityville franchise, the Hills Have Eyes franchise, the Hostel franchise, the Predator franchise, the Piranha franchise, the Fright Night franchise, the… you get the idea.

Pretty much any and every franchise in horror has had some sort of involvement from Nicotero, not to mention his work being seen in pretty much every single Quentin Tarantino effort. Greg Nicotero’s CV seriously reads like the stuff of fanboy (or fangirl) dreams.

So, Nicotero joining McFarlane’s Spawn is a big, big deal, and only further amps up the anticipation for this new take on an old favourite.

On this news, the ever-enthusiastic McFarlane, err, enthused, “When I conceived of the story to start with, I never really thought of it as big special effects extravaganza because I knew we weren’t going to have the budget for it. So I knew I was going to rely heavily on practical makeup and costuming, and one of the places that kept popping up was my good pal Greg Nicotero on his KNB Group. And he’s obviously done a tremendous amount of work on dozens and dozens of movies. The sort of serendipitous part of it is that Greg was there at the beginning 20 years ago for the original Spawn movie.”

For Greg Nicotero’s part, he added, “I’ve been friends with Todd since we did the original Spawn, and the guy’s just a genius. I love the way his mind works. He thinks very, very graphically. I know he really loves the idea of Spawn being dark, and I love the animated show. It’s just a really great opportunity for us to get a chance to collaborate again.”

Already on board for Spawn are Jamie Foxx as the titular anti-hero and Jeremy Renner as trusty cop Twitch Williams.

As for Spawn as a character, he first appeared back in 1992 when he headlined McFarlane’s Spawn #1. A dark and brutal character who was so often deemed an antihero, Spawn quickly became a cult favourite and was often cited as one of the poster boys of the darker books of the day. In terms of powers, his Hellspawn abilities allow him to shape-shift, teleport and get all kinds of nasty with a vast array of weapons.

This won’t be the first cinematic outing for Spawn, for Michael Jai White starred as the character in 1997’s dud Spawn; a movie that also actually featured Greg Nicotero on SFX duties. Here’s hoping this next big screen adventure for this hugely popular character is at least far superior to that balls-up. Given Todd McFarlane’s enthusiasm and passion, and Jamie Foxx’s impressive credentials (the god-awful Amazing Spider-Man 2 withstanding!), this could turn out to be something quite special if all goes according to plan.

Expect more on Spawn as it continues to develop.