Last Christmas, writers Chris Killian and Andrew Sanders shocked Spawn fans with their grisly Christmas horror story, I Saw Santa: A Spawn Universe Christmas Story. The comic follows Santa Claus himself, who finds himself in the middle of a vicious and brutal crime scene after a family is murdered as a result of him giving a lump of coal to the wrong, troubled, and spiteful child.
While that story seemed to end on a semi-happy note, this year the writing duo are back with I Saw Spawn: A Twisted Christmas Tale, which promises the story isn't over yet. While the serial killer Charlie Kohl looked to have been contained by the original spirit of Santa Klaus thanks to his magic red cap, a gruesome massacre in the North Pole with the serial killer's signature style suggests otherwise.
It gets so bad, in fact, that the repercussions of Santa Claus' past decisions finally drag Spawn (created by comics legend Todd McFarlane) into the North Pole's gruesome dilemma—a problem Spawn had been avoiding intervention in.
At NYCC, The Direct spoke with I Saw Spawn: A Twisted Christmas Tale writers Chris Killian and Andrew Sanders about their sequel comic, where we discussed how they were able to explore new elements of the Spawn universe, what changed to allow them to be able to play with Spawn, and just how many more sequels fans might be able to expect.
The first issue of I Saw Santa: A Spawn Universe Christmas Story releases on November 11, with the second issue arriving on December 9.
How Many More Sequels Can Fans Expect From This Spawn Story?
"We Really Approach These Like Seasons of a TV Show."
- The Direct: "Assuming you release one every Christmas, how many years until you think you've told every part of this story that you want to tell?"
Andrew Sanders: Well, that's the hard thing about writing stories like this. Every issue that we do, we find new little nuggets in that, and we go, 'Oh, we could play with that later and expand on that,' and then we kind of just like tuck that away in the back of our heads, and then when we get back to it later, we're like, 'Oh, remember that idea we had like two months ago about that character?' We can start playing with that more, and then we can start mixing and matching like a big jigsaw puzzle until we get a new story.
Chris Killian: I think we really approach these like seasons of a TV show. So, it's like if this was to get canceled, and this is it, we want readers to feel like they got a conclusion of some sort. But also we always, I think, want to leave it open-ended for the possibility of doing another one. All I'll say... is that Todd loves compendiums. He loves them, and so I think that if Andrew and I keep coming up with unique angles, which I think it's fair to say that we have ideas. I think this could go on for a little bit.
What Changed to Allow Spawn to Finally Partake In This Story?
Everything Changed When Spawn Creator Todd McFarlane Read the Scripts.
- The Direct: "The idea of last year's story [was that] Spawn's not really in it... But this year that changes. What changed? What led to you being able to be like, 'Hey, I want Spawn in my next story?'"
Chris Killian: We never really had the audacity to assume we could use [Spawn]. One because that's like Todd's baby, and so we just wanted to like—if we could just like tinker around a little bit, let us play in the corner of the playground over here, you know what I mean? If we can just hang out here, we're not gonna bother anybody... And so then when Todd [MacFarlane] read the full scripts and everything, he was—I mean, that was really one of the big notes back was that they wanted to include Spawn in it.
McKarlane's reaction is what led to Chris Killian and Andrew Sanders to brainstorm ways that Spawn's future inclusion could be teased at the end of I Saw Santa.
Killian: And so we came up with some ideas, and that's where we really started kicking around ideas for what if we had Spawn show up at the end in the way that he kind of does, where it's like he's aware of everything that's going on, but he doesn't actively get involved, and he kind of assumes that it wraps up on its own, with the way that it ended, but now we're gonna see that maybe it hasn't wrapped up, and I also love that about Spawn.
Killian recalled one of the key elements of the Spawn character that really frustrated him as a kid: how the anti-hero often refused to intervene.
Killian: One of the things I love about Spawn was Spawn the animated series. I remember as a kid watching that and getting so frustrated [with] the way Spawn refused to sort of intervene when he could. He would always sort of hang back, watch, and these homeless people are getting murdered, and he's just like, It's not my business. But then there would come a point where he clearly has to get involved, and I think that's what's going on here, where it's like it kind of reaches a point where Spawn has to get involved.
"It's kind of a lesson for Spawn," Killian explains, adding that if Spawn had just intervened in last year's story, all of this year's problems might have never been an issue.
Killian: And honestly, it's kind of a lesson for Spawn as well because it's like if Spawn had just intervened last year when he could have, this would have been a lot easier for him. And now it's going to be a real pain in the ass for Spawn because of his refusal to really sometimes get involved and do the right thing at the opportune moment.
A Sequel That Uses 'John Wick' As a World-Building North Star
"It's Becoming Much More of the Fantastical Folklorish Corner of the Spawn Universe..."
I Saw Spawn: A Twisted Christmas Tale is a sequel to last year's I Saw Santa, and while that is true, it also stands as a story on its own—at least according to co-writer Andrew Sanders.
Andrew Sanders: It is a sequel, but I think it's a story on its own. Like we were able to keep it its own contained story. So if people didn't read 'I Saw Santa,' they could still jump in now and enjoy it, and hopefully want to go back and see what happened in the first one.
Chris Killian went on to note that their model for building out a sequel is akin to John Wick and how that franchise handled its world-building.
Killian: We were really interested in almost like the 'John Wick' model, which is not that, like, this is anything like a John Wick story. But what we really loved about 'John Wick' was that [the movie] has these little sort of teases of a wider universe when you watch that first movie. It's a very, very self-contained story. But there's the coin; they don't explain it. There's a mythology there that goes unexplained. And then in 'John Wick 2,' the circle just gets a little bigger. And it's like as you learn more about the things that you kind of knew about in [the first 'John Wick'], then there's more stuff.
"I think fans are really going to be surprised," Killian declared.
Killian: Just the idea that we're building out this mythology. I think fans are really going to be surprised... We see a lot more of the North Pole. There are more creatures there than just elves and Santa Claus. Once you start venturing outside of Santa's Village, it's becoming much more of the fantastical folklorish corner of the Spawn universe, and I think that was really cool for us to start exploring.
The New Elements They Were Able to Explore With This Story That 'I Saw Santa' Didn't Have
Audiences Are Going to Get Much More Acquainted With the North Pole
- The Direct: "What is something that you were able to do with this new story, besides Spawn's inclusion, which seems like an obvious answer, that you could do with this story that you just weren't able to do on the first, or you realized that like, oh wow, [we want to do this]?"
Andrew Sanders: Getting deeper into the lore [and exploring] what's at the North Pole and stuff. We really weren't able to stay in the North Pole for very long in the first issues. So yeah, we were able to play with that a lot more, and then just Santa's history. We were able to get into that more, and we plan on hopefully tackling more of that too in the future.
Chris Killian: I think the thing that I've really been enjoying about this story is that there's a lot of schlocky Christmas horror out there, but I don't—None of it has any depth to it. And so I really like thematically looking at the darker ideas of Christmas. So for the first one, it was very much like, how does Santa feel when bad things happen to kids? How does that affect him? Does it affect him at all?
According to Killian, the story will make it very clear that Santa will be facing the consequences of not addressing some of his past problems the moment they first showed their faces.
Killian: As we saw, he really kind of took it from a position of, it makes him sad, but it's not his job to protect him, and that's not his role. And so he was sort of distanced from it. But now, he was kind of thrust into a situation where it was in some parts because of him, and because he sort of turned his back on some problems that he maybe could have done something about earlier.
Killian went on to explain how another question they wanted to explore was if it is okay to lie to your kids about the existence of Santa Claus in real life, even if it's in the name of bringing magic into your children's lives, if only for a moment.
Killian: And I think this time, the theme that we really sort of wanted to explore, because Andrew and I have different—we both have kids, and we sort of have different takes on Christmas. My son, we very much went with the old-fashioned Santa Claus thing, and his daughter, he's kind of raised a little bit differently... There's this idea that, like, is it okay to lie to children just because it lets them believe in magic for a little bit? Is it okay to pretend the world is not as mean and cruel as it is to protect them, even if that means lying to them, and I think that's a very interesting thought.
