Jamie Foxx has claimed that 'Black Panther' opened the door for the 'Spawn' reboot.

The Oscar-winning actor is attached to star as Al Simmons, who becomes the demon soldier, in Todd McFarlane's superhero movie and credits the 2018 Marvel Cinematic Universe flick for increasing diversity in the genre.

In an interview with Yahoo Movies, Jamie said: ''I think what 'Black Panther' did first of all was let us know that it's so necessary and it's the time. And Spawn is just an interesting character in itself.''

The original 'Spawn' movie was released in 1997 and featured Michael Jai White in the lead role, one of the first black actors to portray a major comic book superhero on screen.

Foxx recalled how he approached McFarlane - who created the character - for a role in the remake.

The 52-year-old actor said: ''I actually flew a number of years ago, surprised Todd McFarlane and just walked up in his office and I said, 'Bro, I know one day you will do this movie and I hope that you will keep me in mind.''

Foxx also teased that audiences can expect ''something special'' from the new movie.

He stated: ''The heads that are now being put together to bring you something special - look out. I'm looking very much forward to that and showing people something that's incredible.''

Todd previously suggested that the film will be ''dark and ugly''.

The 59-year-old comic book creator said: ''There's no joy. There's gonna be no fun lines in it, and it's just gonna be this dark, ugly two hours' worth of movie, which is essentially what a lot of supernatural/horror movies are anyway. There's not a lot of funny in them.

''And that seems to be a weird hurdle for a lot of people in this city to get over because they sort of go into a superhero/Avengers default all the time.''