If recent reports are to be believed, Friday the 13th fame actor Derek Mears has been cast as the Swamp Thing monster in DC Universe’s upcoming television series.
According to a report coming from Splash Report and later confirmed by Bloody Disgusting, Mears has been chosen to play the titular creature, but, not Swamp Thing’s human alter ego Alec Holland. Notably, Mears is not new to playing comic book roles. He played the role of a Kree Captain on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Sylbert Rundine/Dwarfstar on last season of The Flash.
The Swamp Thing cast list already includes Teen Wolf star Crystal Reed as the series’ female lead Abby Arcane and Straight Outta Compton’s Maria Sten as Liz Tremayne.
During a recent interview with SlashFilm, Swamp Thing writer Gary Dauberman revealed that the series will be as hard R as possible with graphic violence and adult themes. He also revealed that the series will be inspired by Alan Moore’s iconic run.
“We always set out to make Swamp Thing as hard R as we could and go graphic with the violence with the adult themes and make it as scary as possible,” Dauberman said. “Because we’re doing it through the DC streaming service, they really pushed us, although they didn’t have to push hard, for us to go as extreme as we could. We really took our inspiration from the Alan Moore run in Swamp Thing, this landmark run. Fans of that series will know it gets pretty weird and extreme and scary. We really wanted to live up to that standard that Moore set up back in the ‘80s.”
He added that the costume for Swamp Thing will be a physical suit and not a CGI created one.
Swamp Thing follows the story of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researcher Abby Arcane who investigates the spread of a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana. But, she soon discovers that the swamp holds secrets, and when unexplainable horrors emerge, no one is safe.
The series is being directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld) and written as well as produced by Mark Verheiden and Gary Dauberman.
Swamp Thing is set to debut in 2019 on the upcoming DC Universe streaming service, which will officially launch on September 15, 2018. The series is scheduled to begin filming in the fall over at Wilmington, NC.
