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Metafictional comic Kill Shakespeare exits the stage with a gory showdown among Othello, Iago, Hamlet, Richard III, Romeo, Juliet and even the Bard himself in Wednesday’s final issue.

Next stop: Hollywood.

“Before our first issue came out last year, we were approached by production companies about a film version,” Kill Shakespeare co-writer Anthony Del Col told Wired.com. “We’re close to finishing off the script and will be meeting with a number of potential partners later this summer and fall.”

“We want to stop at nothing less than creating a Star Wars-type universe for Kill Shakespeare,” added co-writer Conor McCreery in an e-mail interview.

That could be interesting, given the deep roster and rich intrigue of William Shakespeare’s timeless work, which Del Col and McCreery — along with artists Andy Belanger, Ian Herring and Kagan McLeod — have capably blended into an ambitious intertextual experiment.

Previewed in the gallery above, which includes several exclusive panels from the final issue, the Harvey-nominated Kill Shakespeare pits the Bard’s creations against each other and their literary master. That deft handiwork places the comic alongside Bill Willingham’s Fables and Mike Carey and Peter Gross’ The Unwritten as one of comics’ coolest lit-based productions.

Kill Shakespeare has definitely galvanized the Bard nerds during its 12-issue run.

“Through working on this project, we’ve discovered how many Shakespeare geeks there are,” said Del Col. “This is hopefully just the first of many remixed projects that allow people to plug into his works.”

McCreery’s aim is to have the comic start a renaissance in Bardic fan fiction.

“Hopefully, we’re a good example and have created a new way of approaching some of his greatest characters,” McCreery said. “And I think someone, if not us, is going to do something mind-blowing on the internet.”

McCreery couldn’t divulge details about Kill Shakespeare’s online outgrowth, except to say that he and Del Col are working on tools to extend the comic’s Bard-based intertextuality outside of meatspace and onto mobile platforms.

But their schedule is definitely heating up. Kill Shakespeare’s second collected trade paperback arrives in October, and Canadian natives Del Col and McCreery have received funding from Telefilm Canada, the nation’s top film organization.

In short, both are fully stoked on Kill Shakespeare and its still-unfurling aftermath.

“Immensely happy,” said Del Col. “In an entertainment world that seems to be filling up with genre-driven literary mashups like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and fairy tale remakes, I feel we’ve definitely connected with a wide range of readers, and have been able to get comics fans excited about Shakespeare, and introduce Shakespeare geeks to the comics medium.”

Images courtesy IDW Publishing