Todd McFarlane on why Spawn is a good fit for Call of Duty

The notion of some recent crossovers in Call of Duty, like Nicki Minaj and Homelander from the The Boys running around with a Kastov 762, and lobbing smoke grenades at one another might seem absolutely incongruous, to put it nicely (much more nonsensical than a battle royale game like Fortnite, for instance, where it’s at least quasi-explained in the game’s narrative).

The game’s most recent Season 6 update has a slightly more explicable theme than pop singers and evil Superman expies however — a Halloween theme. One such character included in the Call of Duty Season 6 update is a character whose entire narrative hinges on a character coming back to life with preternatural powers and a symbiotic suit after making a deal with the Devil — and while that might not seem like a good fit for a game like Call of Duty on first glance, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane explained why his character fits right in with Activision’s best-selling video game franchise.

Activision

“Well, let’s talk about the character himself,” said McFarlane when asked why Spawn is a good fit for Call of Duty. “Right underneath the mask in the costume is a guy named Al Simmons — more specifically, Lieutenant Colonel Al Simmons. So literally since issue number one, there’s been the presence of military in the mythology of this character. So, besides him being popular on the comic book front for 30 years. There’s a natural military aspect that I think probably makes him a little bit easier and more seamless to integrate into the Call of Duty game than if you were parachuting other licensed products into it.”

Another factor which made Spawn a good fit for Call of Duty were the different iterations of the character that could be integrated into the Battle Pass.

“So when we were having a conversation with the dev team, we spoke about that more, instead of it just being Spawn or Spawn with big guns. There are iterations — not only in the comic book, but on the toy side of him — as Commando Spawn, decked out in his Desert Storm look, his military looks, and then Al Simmons himself, pre-becoming Spawn; he was just a badass in the military,” McFarlane explained.

Activision

“He was in the Special Ops. So I think when everybody thought about it, I think they came in with, ‘Hey, let’s just do a Spawn. It’d be cool.’ And then we sort of expanded out, which is why it’s not just the OG Spawn — it’s Spawn and a couple different looks, a couple different characters, and then even some of the Call of Duty characters with “cosplay paint jobs” of Spawn on them.”

To unlock Spawn in Call of Duty, purchase the Season 6 Battle Pass for 1100 CoD points. Although the base Spawn skin is unlockable at Tier 0 in the Battle Pass, to obtain all the different Spawn skin players will have to complete all 20 sectors of the Battle Pass and reach Tier 100.