News of a Hellboy reboot was... unexpected. Guillermo Del Toro, who helmed our only two Hellboy movies, had been trying to mount Hellboy 3, but ran into a consistent stream of obstacles. For all intents and purposes, the Hellboy plug had been pulled. Only, it's not. The franchise is back in business -- with Del Toro and original Hellboy Ron Perlman on the outside, looking in. The actor took to Twitter in the wake of the news and stated:
Awww, that's tragic. We love Ron Perlman, particularly as the grouchy demon Hellboy, and we know that he and his frequent collaborator Guillermo Del Toro had been shopping around an idea for a sequel that would cap their trilogy of films. Only, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola is the one who broke the news that the new R-rated Hellboy would go forward with director Neil Marshall (Game of Thrones) and Stranger Things star David Harbour in the lead role.
This surprising burst of Hellboy news led to a love fest on Twitter between Del Toro and Ron Perlman:
And now Hellboy 3, directed by Guillermo Del Toro and starring Ron Perlman, will forever live on the pile of Could Have Been projects that we keep in the corner of our geek bedrooms. The two men had their shot. Hellboy, released in 2004, introduced audiences to the surly monster hunter, an agent of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense who worked alongside the reptilian Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and the beautiful pyrokinetic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) to protect society from dark forces. Globally, the first Hellboy movie couldn't crack $100 million. Its sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, made it to $160.4 million four years later.
The Del Toro Hellboy films looked like this:
We have no real idea what a Neil Marshall Hellboy movie would look like. In addition to Game of Thrones, the director helmed The Descent, so his Hellboy could lean on horror elements. That being said, we don't know why audiences didn't gravitate to the two previous Hellboy films, so we're not 100% sure which direction this new movie should go if it hopes to succeed. I can say that, with all honesty, I don't remember a single thing about the Hellboy movies. I watched that trailer above, and it was all BRAND new to me, and I know I sat through The Golden Army. So try that, Neil Marshall. Make a memorable Hellboy movie. We'll be waiting.
