Well, this is a surprise. As you may remember, Guillermo del Toro recently sat down with Ron Perlman and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola to see if they could figure out a way to get a third film in their series made, and the answer was a very sad “no”. However, the character will be back and there’s a whole new team already lined up.
THR reports that Millennium films has been working with producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin on a “relaunch” for the franchise, and that Stranger Things‘ David Harbour is set to play the title character and wield the right hand of doom.
They also report that Neil Marshall will direct, finally making his return to the big screen after Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Doomsday and Centurion.
Marshall is currently working on a script with Star Trek Discovery‘s Aron Coleite, seemingly from an earlier screenplay by Mignola, Andrew Cosby and Christopher Golden.
At the moment, the film is called Hellboy: Rise Of The Blood Queen.
While it doesn’t seem to mentioned in the THR report, Mignola took to his Facebook page to update fans on the situation and said that this new movie will be rated R.
Del Toro announced that his Hellboy 3 was dead back in February, and both he and Mignola noted that the franchise could still go on without him. It would be interesting to know how long this new take on the character has been in development, but THR says that a discussion was had with Millennium last year and the cost of a third del Toro film was the stumbling block.
This is a tricky one. We are obviously still heartbroken that the final film in del Toro’s trilogy will never be made, and we find it very difficult to imagine anyone other than Perlman in the role of HB. He made it his own, he was just stunning. On the other hand, we love the character and the world, we love Neil Marshall, and David Harbour seems like he could be a good choice.
If we’re definitely living in a world in which Guillermo del Toro doesn’t get to make another Hellboy film, we’re curious about what this new take could be like. And Mignola’s involvement is a good sign, right?
Now, excuse us, we’re going to watch Hellboy 1 and 2 again…
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