The film depicts the origin story of the title character, a murdered US Marine who is resurrected as the reluctant leader of Hell's army.

Following the attack by Spawn, Violator convinces Wynn to have a device attached to his heart that will release Heat 16 worldwide if his vital signs flatline as a deterrent against assassination attempts.

Wynn is arrested by two detectives, and Spawn, realizing there is no place for him in Wanda's world anymore, dedicates himself to justice rather than succumbing to his lust for vengeance and returns to the streets with Cogliostro and Zack.

[10] New Line president Michael De Luca, a comic book collector himself, expressed interest in having "a character that has as established an audience as Spawn", while declaring that success hinged on an adaptation that "maintains a PG-13 rating but retains its darkness.

"[9] As visual effects were an important production concern, the film was to be produced by Pull Down Your Pants Pictures, a company formed by former Industrial Light & Magic artists Mark A.Z.

Dippé was slated to direct the film, with Goldman as producer, and Williams as second unit director and visual effects supervisor.

White had to endure two to four hours of make-up work, including a full glued-on bodysuit, yellow contact lenses that irritated his eyes, and a mask that restricted his breathing.

[13] He said that his long-time experience with martial arts helped him to endure the uncomfortable prosthetics, giving him "strong will and unbreakable concentration.

To cut production time by a week, Goldman lent $1 million to engage John Grower's Santa Barbara Studios to develop the digitally produced Hell sequences.

[10] The visual effects shot count increased from 77 to over 400, created by 22 companies in the United States, Canada and Japan, requiring 70 people and nearly 11 months to complete.

[10] Visual effects supervisor 'Spaz' Williams, with his previous experience of creating the T. Rex in Jurassic Park, was responsible for realizing the reptilian Violator.

[10] A team at ILM supervised by Christopher Hery and Habib Zargarpour modelled, animated and rendered realistic looking robes, glass elements and a computer generated Spawn.

Todd McFarlane explained that this change was made by the studio to avoid having too many black leads, as they believed this would give the false impression that film's target audience was the African American demographic.

[20] The comic book's storyline was later retconned so that original character, Jessica Priest, would take his place while Al's killer was Jason Wynn.

The website's critics consensus states: "Spawn is an overbearing, over-violent film that adds little to the comic book adaptation genre.

[31] David Kaplan of Newsweek called the film "the summer's most spectacular concoction of visual effects and color" but said that those unfamiliar with the comics might find the story difficult to follow.

[32] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle criticized the weak story, and called the film a visual assault, "is all about style, which will appeal to some viewers and overwhelm most others".

[33] Rita Kempley of The Washington Post calls the film a "muddled revenge fantasy" and criticizes the "nonsensical screenplay" and complains about the "thicket of narrative, punctuated by repetitive action sequences.

Miller called the comic character "a rehash of Spiderman [sic]" and the film a poor man's Batman.

[36] John Leguizamo commented on the film: "The thing that Todd McFarlane brought to the comic book industry, which he saved in the early 1990s, was the edge.

[25] In 2007, McFarlane Funding announced development of a new feature film adaptation of the character, titled Spawn, scheduled for release in 2008.

[56][57] In December 2019, McFarlane hired an additional writer to help polish the script, before presenting it to a major Hollywood studio.

[58][59] In March 2020, McFarlane stated Spawn will go into production sometime in 2020 with the intention for him to direct and Jamie Foxx still attached for the lead role.

[66] Spawn: The Album was released in July 1997 and featured popular rock and metal group of bands at the time including: Metallica, Korn, Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Stabbing Westward, Filter, Soul Coughing, Silverchair and Mansun in collaborations with well-known electronica / techno producers such as The Crystal Method, Roni Size, The Prodigy, DJ Greyboy, Atari Teenage Riot, Moby, Orbital and 808 State.

The McFarlane Collector's Club made an LP release available to its members, featuring the standard album art and a translucent red vinyl disc.

"[78] In addition, Moby was originally slated to collaborate with industrial rock band Gravity Kills (titled "Suffocating").

Spawn is one of the first films to feature an African American actor portraying a major comic book superhero.

[7][8][90] Although preceded by other black superhero films such as The Meteor Man (1993), Spawn was the first to be based on a major comic book.

Steel, starring basketball player Shaquille O'Neal based on a DC character, was also released later in the same month as Spawn.

Writing in 2018, Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail was critical of the fact that Michael Jai White was barely seen, and his face hidden by a mask or prosthetics.