The announcement of director Neil Marshall’s upcoming ‘Hellboy’ reboot has always felt like a mixed blessing of sorts. Under most circumstances, the announcement of a new ‘Hellboy’ movie would be unambiguously good news, and to be sure, what we’ve learned about the reboot has been very promising. So what’s the catch? Simple. The existence of the reboot meant the end of nearly a decade of efforts to get the third and final installment of Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Hellboy’ trilogy off the ground.
Fans aren’t the only ones who had to come to terms with the final nail being pounded into the coffin of ‘Hellboy III’. After all, Ron Perlman was among those who spent years trying to get that movie made. More than that, though, Perlman has in many ways been synonymous with the character since he first played the part in 2004. And as if that weren’t enough, we recently learned that his identification with the role long predates his actual involvement, as del Toro made Perlman’s casting a condition of his making a ‘Hellboy’ movie at all.
But time marches on, and now del Toro and Perlman have had to move on as well. And move on they have, as Perlman explained to Heroic Hollywood:
“Well I’m pretty much at peace with what we were able to accomplish with two films and I’m also very much at peace with we put up as noble a fight as we could to complete the trilogy. But it wasn’t to be. I have completely moved on and what happens in the future in regards to that title is really none of my business.”
In contrast to Perlman and del Toro’s outings, Marshall’s reboot is said to be closer in style to the comics, which tend to be darker and more focused on the folklore and mythology underlying the narrative. This darker style has lead to the film targeting an R-rating.
Be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com for more on ‘Hellboy’ as it becomes available!
Directed by Neil Marshall, ‘Hellboy’ stars David Harbour, Ian McShane, Milla Jovovich, Daniel Dae Kim, and Sophie Okonedo. The film is scheduled for release on April 12, 2019.
