If you were one of the few Hellboy fans still holding out hope for a sequel to the reboot — ahem, much like myself — there’s no need to try keeping your hopes up much longer. Hellboy lead David Harbour has confirmed with ComicBook.com that to his knowledge, Lionsgate isn’t planning on doing a sequel anytime soon.
“I don’t think there’ll be much of a light,” Harbour admits. “There’s a lot of people who reach out to me who really loved it and really enjoyed the new take, and were just happy to see him back on the screen, but I know in the culture at large, I don’t think it was very well received.”
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To that point, Harbour’s right. Upon release, the film found itself with a weak 17 percent Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics making sure to point out it doesn’t stand close to Guillermo del Toro’s two earlier films in the Hellboy franchise. To add insult to injury, Lionsgate pulled the plug on the film’s box office run quite early, after it only managed to scrape together just over $46 million worldwide, against a reported production budget of $50m.
“I don’t think it made a lot of money. I don’t really keep up with those things too much to be honest, but I don’t think the perception was that it was a hit, and so in that way, I don’t know that the risk is worth it,” the actor says. “I think the idea is to move on. The producers spoke to me just saying ‘Great job,’ they really liked what I did, but I haven’t heard anything about a sequel, and I’m not hanging my hat on anything like that.”
In addition to this April’s reboot, the Oscar-winning del Toro had two live-action films starring Ron Perlman and was involved in a pair of animated features involving the live-action cast reprising their roles of the property. At one point earlier this Spring, bogus reports surfaced online suggesting the Mike Mignola-created universe would be getting a television. Mignola himself has since debunked the reports, saying nothing of the like has been discussed.
Were you a fan of the reboot? Would you like to see the property as a television show instead? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt to chat all things Hellboy!
Hellboy is slated for a digital release on July 9th ahead of physical home media July 23rd.
