Promoting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in 2022, filmmaker Sam Raimi confirmed that "Universal is talking about a Darkman sequel." We've heard very little since then, but it seems work is finally progressing on the reboot.
According to Dread Central, Don't Move directors Brian Netto and Adam Schindler—who worked with Raimi on the Netflix thriller—are on board to helm Darkman for Ghost House Pictures.
Before producing Don't Move, Raimi worked with Netto and Schindler on Quibi's 50 States of Fright. In 2024, the duo said that Darkman was their dream project. "If we're talking Sam-related, it's Darkman," Schindler said. "We talked about Darkman [with him]. We've got a love and an affinity for Darkman."
Netto added, "Darkman was my favourite film for a good portion of my life. It was the movie, so Darkman would be really interesting."
Earlier this month, Raimi alluded to Netto and Schindler being on board to develop Darkman when he told MovieWeb, "Ghost House Pictures, the company I work with, is trying to make it [Darkman] right now. We have a script and two great directors, but we still have some difficulties with the financing. It always happens the same in the movie business."
As you may recall, the 1990 movie was Raimi's first crack at the superhero genre and his debut studio movie after working on the Evil Dead franchise. It boasted an impressive cast led by Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand, and saw the former play Dr. Peyton Westlake, a scientist-turned master of disguise who embarked on a mission of vengeance after being left horribly disfigured by the mob.
While Darkman wasn't a runaway hit for Universal Pictures, it's become a cult classic that's inspired video games, various comic books, and a couple of direct-to-DVD sequels (minus Neeson).
Those were Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1995) and Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996). That means it's been 30 years since Darkman last graced the screen, so the time seems right for the character to be reimagined for a modern audience. In 2022, Raimi said of Neeson's possible return, "I don’t know if he’d do it. But he’d be incredible."
This is a promising update, and we're hopeful that it will work out better than some other recent remakes. The Darkman franchise has a lot of potential, and fans would have been hugely disappointed if Raimi didn't have some sort of creative involvement in whatever this next iteration looks like.
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.