Marc Guggenheim shares new details about the upcoming comic book movie, Prophet, revealing that the film adaptation is keeping the main character's origin of being an enhanced super soldier created by the Nazis. The Arrowverse co-creator was tasked with writing the Prophet movie script for the adaptation of Rob Liefeld's comic earlier this month, and just yesterday, Sony announced that they were hiring him for the adaptation of the Spider-Man spin-off series Jackpot, further adding to the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters.
The first appearance of Prophet comes in Rob Liefeld's comic series Youngblood #2, which debuted in 1992 after his exit from Marvel Comics, where he had created cult characters like Deadpool and Cable. John Prophet lives as a homeless man during World War II until he volunteers for a study conducted by Dr. Horatio Wells, a scientist studying time travel. Wells puts him in cryostatis after injecting him with DNA-enhancing technology from the future with the intention of rejoining him at a later point in time, but Prophet accidentally awakes in the present day, disoriented, super-powered, and with an urge to kill.
In an interview with Collider's Christina Radish, Guggenheim went into more detail about the Nazi backstory, saying that his goal with the movie is to put Prophet in a position where he has to face "very similar, almost parallel moral questions... Having come out of great evil, to then have to go and face a new form of that evil, is very interesting to me." He finished by mentioning that he was being intentionally vague, even though he has hinted at his position with previous references to Nazis in his work.
Plans for a Prophet movie by Tristar Pictures were stalled in 1995 and then picked up over 20 years later in 2018 by Studio 8 when it acquired the rights, but they've been on a slow burn ever since. When it was announced earlier this month that Guggenheim would be writing Liefeld's project, both men shared their excitement on Twitter, with Liefeld writing "you guys are going to dig what he has in store!" and Guggenheim replying that he was "thrilled and grateful for the opportunity." Liefeld will co-produce, along with Hitman: Agent 47's Adrian Askarieh, Brooklyn Weaver, John Hyde, and Terissa Kelton.
Between Prophet, Jackpot, and his work on the CW's Legends of Tomorrow - which airs his directorial debut on May 26 at 9pm - Guggenheim sure has his hands full, but he seems to welcome the challenge. Even though Prophet has no release date as of yet, with all the right players in place, it's only a matter of time before we see Rob Liefeld's super soldier story come to life on the big screen.
Source: Collider