Ron Perlman was one of the loudest voices lobbying for a third film in Gullermo del Toro's Hellboy series. However, now that such a thing appears to be truly and completely dead, the actor is apparently done talking about the topic entirely. During a recent Reddit AMA, a fan asked Perlman his thoughts on the first images of David Harbour as the new Hellboy. Perlman killed the topic dead, saying...
I've made my peace with it. I refuse to answer any questions about it.
So, apparently, the title of this Reddit event was actually "Ask Me Anything, except about Hellboy." Of course, you can't really blame Ron Perlman. He's spent years very publicly trying to build fan support toward a new movie to complete the Hellboy trilogy that Guillermo del Toro started. The odds of such a movie ever happening were never high, but that never seemed to dissuade the actor who kept fighting the good fight right up until it was announced that, while there would be a new Hellboy movie, it would be a reboot starring an entirely new cast. Perlman made his frustration over this change of direction known, but it seems now he'd like to put the entire thing behind him and move forward.
The new Hellboy movie, however, is also moving forward. The image of David Harbour as the title character, which Ron Perlman was refusing to comment on, certainly looks like Hellboy. The design doesn't seem to take any major departures from the version that Ron Perlman portrayed in two films. The new version promises to be an R-rated affair with a greater emphasis on the comic books' horror elements than the Guillermo del Toro version had.
While pretty much everybody who was part of Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy has washed their hands of the reboot, that isn't the only issue the new movie has had to deal with. The movie came under fire recently when it cast Ed Skrein as a character who was half Japanese in the comic book. Skrein publicly apologized for the decision, claiming he wasn't aware of the character's ancestry when he agreed to the part. Actor Daniel Dae Kim has since been cast to replace Skrein.
Hellboy fans are likely mostly happy that a new film is on the way, regardless of source. While fans of Guillermo del Toro's movies specifically may be disappointed, Ron Perlman probably has the right idea. While nothing in Hollywood is impossible (The Avatar sequels are filming after all) an end to the Hellboy trilogy is as close to impossible as any film project can possibly be. It's probably best for all of us to move on.
