Robert Kirkman explains why Spawn isn’t in Invincible Season 3 Episode 7

Invincible Season 3 Episode 7 adapts one of the comic’s bloodiest and important arcs, the Invincible War – but one character is missing: Spawn.

At the end of Episode 6, the man on the other side of the orbs was revealed: Angstrom Levy, and he wasn’t alone. He’d gathered over a dozen Mark Graysons from across the multiverse, setting up an iconic storyline from Robert Kirkman’s source material.

I won’t spoil it too much, but the arc unleashes all of them onto the main timeline to wreak havoc and tarnish Invincible‘s name. “Go, destroy everything in your path. Make them see Invincible, make them fear Invincible, make them hate Invincible,” Angstrom orders.

Just like in the original comic, Cecil calls on the support of every superhero on the planet to defend Earth and stop the carnage – unfortunately, that doesn’t include Spawn.

Why Spawn doesn’t appear in the Invincible War

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According to Robert Kirkman, Spawn couldn’t appear in Invincible Season 3 Episode 7 because it was too “complicated.”

Spawn was created by Todd McFarlane and first published under Image Comics – the same publisher behind Invincible.

That enabled Kirkman to use him in Issue #60, which covers the entire Invincible War. In fairness, he shows up incredibly briefly, chaining up the Mark variant in traditional Viltrumite clothing. It’s little more than a fun Easter egg, but it does mean that Spawn is canon in the Invincible universe – sadly, that’s limited to the comics.

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Episode 7 introduces lots of characters from the characters fans have long wanted to see, like Brit, Tech Jacket, Bolt, and Kid Thor. In an interview with Dexerto, Kirkman briefly touched on why he couldn’t include Spawn in the lineup of Earth’s mightiest heroes.

“Unfortunately, it’s complicated to the point of impossibility for something like that to happen in a show. So, I wouldn’t expect to see Spawn in this show ever,” he said.

Here’s the thing: while Spawn may have been published by the Image Comics label, it was founded to give its creators more control over their properties… meaning Todd McFarlane owns the rights to the character.

It’s unclear if Kirkman tried to get Spawn into the Invincible TV show, but McFarlane is notoriously protective; for example, in 2017 he told SyFy Wire that he’d only agree to a new Spawn movie if he wrote, produced, and directed it, “non-negotiable.”

That sort of arrangement obviously doesn’t gel with Invincible’s set-up, so it was always going to be difficult to get a cameo. Also, this isn’t the first time Invincible has had difficulties incorporating other characters – notably, Season 2’s finale included Agent Spider instead of Spider-Man.

Make sure you know when Episode 8 drops with our Invincible Season 3 release time & schedule guide and keep tabs on the show’s soundtrack. Until then, find out why Mark’s blue suit is so important and if you want to jump ahead, you can read the Invincible comics for free.