Back in May, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola announced a reboot of the movie franchise, with Neil Marshall set to direct Stranger Things star David Harbour in the R-rated Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen. However, speaking to Nerdist, Mignola has revealed that the project was originally envisioned as a follow-up to Guillermo del Toro’s movies, only for del Toro and Ron Perlman to pass on the opportunity to return.
“I would’ve loved to see Guillermo do his third movie and finish that story,” said Mignola. “But over the years it became very clear that wasn’t going to happen. About three years ago the producers, the screenwriter Andrew Cosby, and I all started working on this new story. Del Toro didn’t want to have anything to do with it, he wasn’t going to direct. He was offered to be a producer, and Ron wouldn’t do it without Guillermo.”
“So we originally started trying to tie it to the del Toro universe and continue those movies,” he continued. “But once we had Neil Marshall, we thought, ‘Why are we going to try and continue that universe?’ Because a del Toro movie is a del Toro movie, and you don’t want to try and hand a del Toro movie to someone else. Especially someone as great as Neil Marshall. So that’s when it went from being this continuation to being a reboot. It’s exciting to have another director. It’s exciting to take another path, to take that material and give it another leaning.”
Are you disappointed that we won’t get to see a third Hellboy from Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman, or are you looking forward to this new take? Let us know in the comments below…
Originally published July 15, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
