‘Hellboy’ Still an Open Wound for Ron Perlman

Ron Perlman starred as Hellboy in two feature films and voiced the character in multiple animated adventures, though he has largely been kept in the dark about many of the developments regarding the upcoming reboot starring David Harbour and directed by Neil Marshall. Despite the amount of time Perlman has had to come to grips with the franchise moving on without him, the actor recently revealed that the subject is still an “open wound.”

“I felt like we owed the fans closure, and there were too many people moving in too many other directions and I just couldn’t pull it off,” Perlman shared with Collider. “So if you ask me about it, it’s kind of still an open wound.”

The first Hellboy debuted in the wake of films like X-Men and Spider-Man becoming massive successes, allowing studios to get more ambitious with what comic book characters were brought to life. While fans of the character loved Perlman’s take on the demon, thanks in large part to director Guillermo del Toro’s interpretation of the material, the character didn’t find the same success as films from larger publishers.

After del Toro earned immense praise for Pan’s Labyrinth, he was given the opportunity to pursue any project he liked, which involved re-teaming with Perlman for Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Similar to the first film, the movie was a hit with fans, though failed to connect with a majority of audiences.

The actor claimed it was the time he spent “poking and prodding the bear” about trying to make a third film happen that left him especially disappointed about news of the reboot.

He added, “I never thought it was going through, but I did know that Guillermo had an amazing idea of how to close the trilogy. It was theatrically so dynamic. If you were a fan of the first two Hellboys, not only were you going to have the top of your head blown off by how it resolved, but you were going to get the payoff in the investment because it was always designed to be a trilogy.”

As the reboot was being developed, Perlman noted that he had no involvement with the project at any sort of collaborative level. He did, however, confirm that were Harbour to have reached out to him in hopes of getting insight about the character Perlman has played so often, he would take the call.

Hellboy opens in theaters on April 12, 2019.

Are you surprised that Perlman is still so upset about having to hand the character over to a new performer? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T YouTube, Collider Live]