Prophet creator Rob Liefeld gives an update on the planned adaptation starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Deadpool mastermind Liefeld first unleashed Image Comics’ Prophet in 1992’s Youngblood #2. The super-soldier character has since starred in four of his own comic book series, the latest kicking off in 2016.
As for Liefeld’s Prophet making the jump from the pages of comics to the big screen, the first hints of this surfaced in 1995 when Tristar Pictures bought the film rights to the series. But development on a Prophet film didn’t really get cranked up until 2018, when Studio 8 acquired the rights. Over the next few years, it was announced that Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim would tackle screenwriting duties on Prophet, with Gyllenhaal on-board to star and Extraction helmer Sam Hargrave taking on directing duties. Unfortunately, fans have heard nothing more about Prophet since these moves were revealed in 2021.
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But now Liefeld has spoken up to give Prophet fans an update on the movie’s status, and his news is encouraging to say the least. Speaking to ComicBook.com, Liefeld indicated that Prophet is still very much on track, and producers are just waiting for Gyllenhaal and Hargrave to get finished with their currently-filming projects. Check out his remarks in the space below:
"Jake has come on as a producer. The draft that is being completed right now is a polish of the second act. There was one sequence that was added, that everyone was like 'How did we never think of that?' Prophet is like…I wish I could share the screenplay with everybody. It's that old adage: if it's not on the page, it's not on the screen. Marc Guggenheim, his draft got us Sam Hargrave, got us Jake Gyllenhaal. That's how good the paper is….But we always knew, Jake was always making Road House right now. Sam was never going to be done with Extraction 2, even a year ago, there was an additional 13, 14 months. So we're extremely excited. In the business of movies, you just hope that your important contributors stay on board, and as of today, Jake is fully engaged, giving notes, taking meetings, shaping the movie, and Sam is in his free time away from Extraction 2, has continued to shape it. I am super excited, I don't want to jinx it, but it is a big deal.”
Gyllenhaal & Liefeld's Prophet Movie Is Still On A Good Track
It happens all the time that movies are announced and everyone involved is said to be very excited, only for the projects in question to fall by the wayside with no explanation. Liefeld's Prophet however seems to be very much alive after a year with no significant updates. The writing process has moved beyond Guggenheim’s first draft as Liefeld indicated, and Gyllenhaal and Hargrave are both still very much on-board. Hargrave in fact has been putting in work on the movie when not toiling away on Netflix’s highly-anticipated Chris Hemsworth vehicle Extraction 2.
It’s perhaps no surprise that Prophet is still something Studio 8 is committed to, given the wild success of Deadpool, Liefeld’s most famous comic book creation. It remains to be seen of course whether Prophet ultimately translates to the big screen as well as Deadpool. But as of now, it appears the movie is going forward at a good clip, with full engagement from the key creatives who have been brought on-board. Given that it’s still at a very early stage in the process, it’s no surprise that Prophet does not yet have a release date.