While the Guillermo del Toro Hellboy holds a special place for many comic book fans, the franchise has been dormant for a decade. Del Toro, now an Oscar-winning director, wished to revisit the franchise for a third film. However, the first two were not exactly big financial successes. In fact, neither even made back its budget during their domestic runs. If del Toro had become such a large name in the industry, it seems likely the second film would never have been made.
With two strikes, it became nearly impossible for Legendary or Universal to fund the third film to close out the franchise. This opened the door for a new take, and today we receive another look of the rebooted universe. Check out the trailer from director Neil Marshall below!
The new Hellboy clearly features some incredible new effects, especially when it comes to the blood and gore. David Harbour looks to be having a ball in the film, really leaning into the darker edge of the character. All around, Marshall has clearly embraced the R-Rated world of Hellboy. This does bode well for those of us who like the comics.
To the film’s advantage, it looks like many of the characters from the del Toro trilogy have been left at home. The one that may make people upset could be Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), but the combo of Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim could do the trick. Hopefully, Ian McShane gets to let go as the Professor as well, and deliver some trademark swearing. Milla Jovovich seems to be her typical self in the trailer. This is not a bad thing, especially because the character is named the Nimue the Blood Queen. It looks like Hellboy could be a fun new comic book film to help kick the summer season into high gear.
