God Country - What We Know So Far

Momentum is finally starting to build for Legendary Entertainment's "God Country."

Jim Mickle is set to direct the studio's feature film adaptation of the 2017 comic book of the same name written by Donny Cates. Mickle previously served as the co-creator and showrunner on Netflix's "Sweet Tooth," the streaming service's series adaptation of Jeff Lemire's acclaimed Vertigo comic book series. Mickle also, notably, directed half of the eight episodes of "Sweet Tooth." That series appears to be, by all accounts, another major success for Netflix, and it looks like Mickle is capitalizing on the goodwill surrounding his work on "Sweet Tooth" to try and bring yet another beloved comic to life.

Whether or not Mickle is as successful in adapting "God Country" as he was with "Sweet Tooth" remains to be seen, but the project has all the potential to be an interesting and unique addition to the increasingly crowded comic book movie landscape. Donny Cates, who wrote the original six-issue comic series, also penned the script for the adaptation, which means there's a good chance the "God Country" film will hold onto many of the elements that made the comic so memorable. Here's everything we know so far about the upcoming adaptation.

No official release date has been set yet for "God Country." While Donny Cates apparently finished writing the script for the film last year (via Vital Thrills), Jim Mickle only recently signed on as its director. That means the project is still in its early stages of development and will likely start building its cast in the coming months. There could also be a delay in getting to that step, depending on whether any rewrites of Cates' original script need to be completed, either by Mickle or someone else.

However, finding a director nonetheless marks a major step forward for the project. If Mickle and Legendary manage to find the right cast for "God Country" over the course of the next few months, too, it's possible the film could begin production near the end of this year or in 2022. That'd open the door for "God Country" to conceivably be released sometime in 2023 or 2024. Again, that all depends on how quickly the film's casting and pre-production process moves, which will have the biggest impact on its eventual release date.

Since Jim Mickle only recently signed on as the "God Country" director, no actors have been cast yet in the film. Now that Mickle is onboard, though, casting for the project will presumably begin sometime in the very near future. That will likely start with Mickle and the rest of the film's creative team looking at various actors for the role of Emmet Quinlan, the lead character of the original comics series. Once Mickle and company have finally found their Emmet Quinlan, fans will then be able to expect additional casting announcements to start rolling in as the film's team endeavors to start filling the various supporting roles in "God Country."

There's no word yet on who Mickle and his collaborators may be looking at for the "God Country" cast and there probably won't be any news of that kind until actors start signing onto the project. Therefore, in the meantime, fans of the original comic will just have to start coming up with their own casting ideas.

Written by Donny Cates, the "God Country" comic series follows Emmet Quinlan, a widower suffering from dementia in a West Texas town. His whole existence is turned upside down when a tornado destroys his home, but leads to him coming into possession of a magical sword that restores both his mental health and physical strength. Armed with the sword, Emmet is the only man capable of fighting off the supernatural creatures that have begun invading the place he calls home. Unfortunately, dealing with the threat of new, otherworldly monsters isn't the only problem Emmet has to deal with — there's also the powerful cosmic being hellbent on getting the sword back.

Since Cates wrote the screenplay for the adaptation, fans of the original series should feel safe knowing that it will probably stay pretty faithful to its source material. While it may have only run for six issues as well, the "God Country" comic should still contain more than enough conflict and story to fill up the runtime of a feature-length film.