Swamp Thing premiere date set for May at DC Universe, Stargirl receives first photo

By Laura Prudom and Joshua Yehl

DC Universe has revealed the first date of Swer Thing's upcoming adaptation at WonderCon by James Wan, as well as a preview of the series presented exclusively in the venue and which (for the moment) will not be broadcast widely. The trailer features many quick and scary snaps that set the horrific Southern Gothic atmosphere of the series, with rotting corpses reanimated through creeping vines and many fears. The last picture of the trailer shows Abby Arcane (Crystal Reed) wading through the marsh before turning to see something lumpy, sticky and absolutely It's not a human being who starts to come out of the water – but the camera cuts before we can see Swamp Thing in all its splendor.

Swamp Thing will be featured for the first time on the DC Universe streaming service on May 31st. For DC, "The series follows Abby Arcane as she investigates what appears to be a deadly virus born in a marsh in a small town in Louisiana, holds mystical and terrifying secrets." Horror basics are expected from the series by executive producers James Wan, Verheiden Mark, Gary Dauberman, Michael Clear and Len Wiseman. "If you're not familiar with Swamp Thing, here's all you need to know about the supernatural character.

Executive Producer Mark Verheiden gave us a hint of the tone of the series at the WonderCon panel: "The general mood is that we want to scare you, it's Swamp Thing as scary, it's Swamp Thing in a South sinister city, "he teased. "We are going to bring you very scary things, but in addition to that, we are telling a beautiful and beautiful love story between Abby Arcane and Swamp Thing."

We may not have seen Swamp Thing in action at the WonderCon, but IGN was present at a DC Universe event earlier this week, where we learned a lot about the new series …

At the event, producers Len Wiseman and Rob Hackett showed a clip of the next show and explained which Swamp Thing movies and comics had influenced the show and how the creature would be portrayed.

The scene ignites a swampy mystery

Abby Arcane (Crystal Reed) and Matt Cable (Henderson Wade) are investigating a terrifying house in the swamp. They are looking for someone but he does not seem to be at home. They see green malice on the wall and follow her into a room where they hear a strange noise. When they pass a particularly macabre smear, it seems to come alive as the vines grow and snake against the wall, although they are too focused on noise to be noticed. They move quickly into the room where they find Alec Holland (Andy Bean) wearing plastic gloves and sawing a piece of floor. He tells them that he is collecting a sample, but they should note what is in the bathroom.

This is where the green greenness trail ends and we find our person of interest covered with wetland vines, drained with color, giving it wet, gray and dead skin. The cause of death seems to be a mess of swampy substance that has grown and burst out of that mouth. We know that the series is focused on the investigation of a swamp virus and, although we have not defined the context of this scene, we imagine that it could be an incident that caused the first encounter between the characters and the discovery of this mysterious and deadly threat.

A tale of two swamp things

Although we did not have a look at Swamp Thing itself, they did reveal a little about how they brought the creature to life.

There are actually two men playing the role. The actor Andy Bean plays Alec Holland in a human form and the creature singer Derek Bears plays the fully transformed film of Swamp Thing. They explained their decision to split the role by saying that they did not want an actor who is not an artist-creature to be wearing makeup, prosthetics and body clothing for 13 hours as this would impair their performance . Having a creature performer like Bears (who played horror icons like Jason Voorhees and the Predator) assumes the physical aspect of Swamp Thing allows him to bring the creature to life as only a skilled professional can do it. Not to mention Swamp Thing, an imposing creature 7 meters tall, the Mears 6'5 is a better physical match against the monster.

Producers said the series was a horror drama very much rooted in the real world. In this way, when supernatural things happen, they are even more shocking.

They said the show would have a lot of Cronenbergian body horror, so naturally, the fly was a great inspiration for the show. They explained how the series uses mainly practical effects, like The Blob. In fact, they said that the series was composed at 90% of practical effects and only 10% of computer generated effects, mainly because they thought that things were more scary and more scary if they were real. And at the end of the day, they want this show to be cool, scary and packed with raw stuff.

Marsh

In addition to the clip, they also showed a video in timelapse of the group of marshes under construction. Built inside a massive sound stage, the entire swamp was about the size of a football field. They built what looked like a small hut, dressed the area with swampy vegetation and trees and filled it with water. They said that they wanted to be sure that the marsh water was dirty enough, so they tried many ways to achieve this effect, like mixing the jello to add consistency, but eventually opted for small pearls that seem particularly unpleasant when they are amassed in the water. In addition to the scenery, they have filmed scenes in a real swamp, so they will show a mix of both.

Back to the roots of Swamp Thing's comics

The producers cited Alan Moore's Swamp Thing as the show's main inspiration, showing Alec Holland / Swamp Thing confronting his identity (and his nature), exploring the character's duality and ruminating on what it means to be Human. They said that the iconic Swamp Thing # 21, titled "The Anatomy Lesson," was essentially the bible of the series. If you are not familiar with the content of this issue, we do not want to spoil it if the same scenario is used in the series, but suffice it to say that this has become a defining moment for the character who has returned Swamp Thing world in a deep way by making sure that Swamp Thing and the reader question the nature of his existence.

If you're a fan of Swamp Thing's original version created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, do not worry. They said Swamp Thing's initial transformation was taken directly from Wrightson's first iconic rendering of the character.

When will we see Swamp Thing in the show?

Although the producers did not say precisely, they assured us that there would be no transformation of the season into Swamp Thing and that we might see it perhaps in the first episode of the series.

The WonderCon panel also revealed the launch of other shows in the upcoming DC Universe – the second half of Young Justice: Outsiders will debut on July 2, 2019, Titans season 2 will return to the Autumn 2019 – the animated series Harley Quinn (with Kaley Cuoco) The first will take place in late fall and Stargirl in early 2020.

Take a look at Brec Bassinger in costume in Stargirl below.

Season 1 of Syfy Krypton will be launched on DC Universe on April 5th, and the original animated film Justice League vs. The Fatal Five will premiere on April 16th.

The panel also revealed a major update to DC Universe's comic book library, giving access to all of this year's digital comics, which originated in April. Members have access to each issue published 12 months prior to a given date, similar to the Marvel Unlimited subscription service.

"This is the ultimate digital content library, 20,000 books," said Jim Lee, publisher of DC. "We are continually adding to that as we continue to publish comics."