The last time the public was treated to a James Mangold movie was in 2019 with Ford v. Ferrari, which went on two Academy Awards, among numerous other accolades. This summer, the filmmaker will make his grand return to the cinematic realm with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which he stepped in to direct after Steven Spielberg decided to step back from that duty after helming the franchise’s previous four movies. We’re still about five months out from that major 2023 movie release, but word’s come in that Mangold is lining up his next blockbuster, and fans of the DC movies should get excited.
Among the big pieces of DC news that was announced this week by DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran for the upcoming Chapter 1 slate, a.k.a. “Gods and Monsters,” was that a new Swamp Thing movie is on the way, and it’s now been revealed that James Mangold is in talks to direct the project. Mangold is reportedly a big fan of the character created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson, and the filmmaker even teased his potential Swamp Thing involvement with the below Tweet, which was retweeted by Gunn.
pic.twitter.com/WCDuFtucT6February 1, 2023
It should be noted that even if James Mangold and DC reach an agreement for the former to tackle Swamp Thing, it will not be the first movie he works on after Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. According to Deadline, Mangold still intends to make the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown next, which stars Dune’s Timothée Chalamet as the singer. Like the other newly-announced DC movies besides Superman: Legacy (which is due out on July 11, 2025), Swamp Thing doesn’t have a release date yet, so it’ll be a while we see what it has to offer, whether Mangold is at the helm or not.
Assuming Swamp Thing is in James Mangold’s future, it will be the second comic book movie on his resume, the first being 2017’s Logan, which had been Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine appearance until the actor decided to put on the adamantium claws again for Deadpool 3. Swamp Thing was first depicted on the big screen in 1982, and that was followed by 1989’s The Return of Swamp Thing. There have also been two live-action Swamp Thing TV shows, the former airing on USA Network from 1990 to 1993, and the latter having a brief, yer critically well-received life on DC Universe from late May to early August 2019.
Needless to say we’re a ways off from learning any specific plot details about Swamp Thing, but James Gunn said that the movie will “investigate the dark origins” of the character through a horror lens. Swamp Thing will go on to interact with the other characters populating this new shared DC universe, although it remains to be seen if he’ll be used set up the inclusion of other supernatural characters, including his Justice League Dark teammates.
As soon as any other major Swamp Thing details come in, we’ll pass them along. Until then, browse through our guide of upcoming DC movies to learn what else this superhero franchise has coming up, and check out James Mangold’s work in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny when it hits theaters on June 30.
