When a reboot of ‘Hellboy‘ was announced many fans of the original two films were wondering why they weren’t getting an endcap to a trilogy and now series creator Mike Mignola has opened on why. While Guillermo del Toro’s work has a passionate fanbase, myself included, it didn’t seem like the right move for the studio if they wanted to push forward with a new franchise or more movies.
However, much of it stemmed from the fact that Guillermo del Toro wasn’t willing to return for a third film so if they wanted to go a darker route with the characters it seemed like a reboot was the best choice.
According to Mignola:
“We went back and forth on that. Early on there was some idea of continuing the storyline that del Toro had started but would that be fair to a new director? So we decided to just start over. Neil is a horror director, so the idea then was to make a darker film. If you are going to use a guy, let him do what he does best. So we went through the script taking out the del Toro-isms and in some ways go out of our way to make sure we are doing a different Hellboy with its own distinct character [as a project] but still adhering to the comics.”
This is how we ended up getting a darker film that fits more in the realm of the R-Rated category that much of the source material could easily translate into. The creative process also ended up being very different this time around:
“It’s funny because my involvement has been very different than the del Toro movies. The difference is I had known del Toro for six years by the time we did the first movie. Neil, I met a couple months before he worked on the movie. It was very different, but I have been involved ever since they said, ‘Hey we’re gonna make another Hellboy movie, and we’re gonna do this story.’ I’ve bounced back and forth with them about how to adapt this particular Hellboy story. At various times I’ve jumped in and been much more active in the screenplay than I ever was on the Del Toro movies. But I did nothing so far as design stuff on the movie. Guillermo wanted me as a concept artist, but on this movie, there were other concept artists. I came in and I looked at some stuff, but they were trying to do something so close to what’s on the comics that they really leaned on what had been done by Duncan [Fegredo] and me in the comics.”
As the artistic style of ‘Hellboy’ is what had originally drawn me into it before loving the actual storyline, this is something that I am visually looking forward to and am dying to see a trailer for. If they can create a film that resembled the style and tone of the books, this is a franchise I’ll be able to jump right into and hope that it continues for years to come.
Are you excited for the new take on ‘Hellboy’? If you were a diehard fan of the first two films, are you willing to give this new iteration a chance? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Deadline
