Originally published May 10, 2017. Updated November 30, 2022.
Yesterday, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola set the internet ablaze (ahem) with his announcement that the Hellboy movie franchise was getting an R-rated reboot. In addition, it was revealed that Ron Perlman wouldn’t be returning to the role, instead being replaced by Stranger Things actor David Harbour, while Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent) is directing. This begs the question: what will an R-rated Hellboy movie look like?
One of the reboot’s screenwriters, Andrew Cosby, just sat down with Silver Screen Beat to talk a little about the tone that this new reboot will take:
“I can’t really talk about specifics with regard to the story, which they’re keeping a pretty tight lid on at the moment, but I can say that this is a darker, more gruesome version of Hellboy. Neil said from the very beginning that he wanted to walk a razor’s edge between horror and comic book movie, which was music to my ears, because that’s what I was shooting for in the script, and precisely what Mignola does so well with the comics.”
It is definitely not surprising that the Hellboy reboot is aiming for an R rating. After all, more adult-oriented comic book movies are becoming all the rage these days – see Deadpool, Logan, Batman v. Superman: Ultimate Edition, and the upcoming Venom solo movie. Simply put: studios are trying to do more justice to the source material, and it is (surprise!) working.
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