SWAMP THING Reportedly Casts Derek Mears as...Swamp Thing

Do not bring your evil here.

Splash Report has revealed that the upcoming DC Universe series Swamp Thing, based on the DC Comics elemental creature, is considering Derek Mears for the title role.  It remains unclear, however, who will be playing Dr. Alec Holland, the scientist whose consciousness and memories form the basis for Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing follows Abby Arcane (Crystal Reed) as she investigates what seems to be a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana but soon discovers that the swamp holds mystical and terrifying secrets.  When unexplainable and chilling horrors emerge from the murky marsh, no one is safe.

The live-action DC Universe adaptation will be executive produced by Len Wiseman (Sleepy Hollow) who will also direct the pilot. Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica, Netflix’s Daredevil) and Gary Dauberman (It) are attached to co-write the series and act as showrunners, with James Wan (Aquaman) set to executive produce the series alongside Verheiden, Dauberman, and Michael Clear.  The series is set to start filming this fall in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Mears, 46, is best known as Jason Vorhees in the 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th, the supervillain Dwarfstar on The CW's The Flash, and as Renzo in the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks.  He's also appeared in the movies Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and Predators.  His other television appearances include episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Comedy Bang! Bang!, Community, E.R., and The Shield.

Created in 1971 by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, Swamp Thing first appeared in House of Secrets #92 as Alex Olsen, a talented young scientist in early 1900's Louisiana, who was married to a woman named Linda.  Alex's assistant, Damian Ridge, was secretly in love with Linda and plotted the death of his friend.  He tampered with Olsen's chemicals, killing him in the explosion and dumped his body in the nearby swamp. Ridge used Linda's grief to convince her to marry him, only to one day become confronted with Alex Olsen again, now a risen humanoid pile of vegetable matter.  Olsen killed Ridge, but Linda did not recognize him and ran away leaving Olsen to wander the swamps alone as a monster.

The character was reinvented by Wein and Wrightson a year in Swamp Thing (vol.1) #1 as Dr. Alec Holland, a scientist who worked in a secret facility located in the Louisiana swamplands with his wife, Linda.  Together, they invented a bio-restorative formula that could solve any nations' food shortage problems.  Two thugs working for Nathan Ellery, head of the criminal organization The Conclave, barged into Alec's lab, knocked him out, and planted a bomb in the facility.  Alec woke up as the bomb exploded, and in flames, he ran into the swamp.  His body was drenched in the bio-restorative formula, and this affected the plant life of the swamp, imbuing it with Alec's consciousness and memories.  The newly conscious plant life formed a semblance of a human and rose up from the bog as the Swamp Thing, the latest in a long line of Earth elementals created when The Green is in need of protection.

The Swamp Thing originally thought that he was Alec Holland, transformed by the freak accident into a monster.  He sought to regain his human body, but often met opposition in the form of Anton Arcane and his ever-growing legion of "Un-Men".  After finally defeating Arcane, Swamp Thing was set upon by General Sunderland's men in a covert military operation.  The resulting attack blastws a hole in Swamp Thing's head and destroyed the lives of many of his friends.  Sunderland brought the Swamp Thing's body back to Sunderland Corporation to study and unlock the secret of the Bio-Restorative Formula.

Sunderland hired Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man, to study Swamp Thing's body, which he stored in a cryochest.  Over the course of his research, Floronic Man deduced that Swamp Thing is a plant that thinks it's Alec Holland, while the real Alec Holland died in the explosion.  Sunderland and Floronic Man parted on bad terms, so the scientist used Sunderland's automated computer systems to raise the thermostat in Swamp Thing's cryochest.  This allowed Swamp Thing's body to regenerate, and in his search for Sunderland, he stumbled across the Floronic Man's report, which sent him into a mindless rage.  He killed Sunderland and set off for the swamps.

Later on, Swamp Thing formed a close friendship with Anton Arcane's niece, Abby Cable. Her husband Matthew grew resentful of her disinterest in sex and turned to alcohol, further pushing her toward the Swamp Thing.  She asks for his help when her autistic students at Elysium Lawns are tormented by Kamara, the Monkey-King, and on the same night the demon attacked, Matthew left to help Abby.  However, his alcoholism caused him to crash his car, mortally wounding him.  To stay alive, he made a pact with the spirit of Anton Arcane, who possessed his body.  After weeks, Abby realized that the man she thought was her husband was actually her uncle Anton.  Her feeling of disgust sent her into a horrible shock.  Swamp Thing confronted the possessed Matthew, and with the guidance of the monster, discovered Abby's body.  

Enraged that Arcane sent the "soul" of his niece to Hell, Swamp Thing beat Arcane to a pulp, allowing Matthew's trapped spirit to cast the soul of the sorcerer out of his body and back to the netherworld.  This returned Matthew's control of his body, but left him comatose.  To set things right, Swamp Thing traveled into The Green, the Spirit World, and Hell, all to reclaim Abby's soul.  He was forced to fight off a legion of the damned, including Anton Arcane, but he prevailed again with the help of Etrigan the Demon.  After Abby returned to life, Swamp Thing and Abby confessed their love for each other.  To celebrate the beginning of their relationship, Swamp Thing grew hallucinogenic tubers for Abby to eat, enabling her to see the world as he does.

Mears will be the second actor to portray Swamp Thing in live action, after Dick Durock in the films Swamp Thing and The Return of Swamp Thing, and the 1990 Swamp Thing TV series.  The character has also appeared in various animated projects, including the Swamp Thing animated series (voiced by Len Carlson), Justice League Dark (voiced by Roger R. Cross), Batman and Harley Quinn (voiced by John DiMaggio), and Justice League Action (voiced by Mark Hamill).

Swamp Thing is expected to debut on DC Universe sometime in 2019.