New ‘Hellboy’ Stills Tease Showdown with Gruagach

As the calendar inches towards April, the marketing campaign for Hellboy is now well underway. In a recent social media post, Lionsgate shared a set of new stills from the horror flick featuring a showdown between Hellboy (David Harbour) himself and Gruagach (Douglas Tait) — a fight seen in both trailers and most television spots to date. The batch of pictures also highlights Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim) and the ageless Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane), both agents of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

The reboot pulls inspiration from various classic Hellboy tales like “Darkness Calls” and “The Wild Hunt,” both tales in which Gruagach — a shapeshifting fair — is both involved in. In addition to the boar-like creature, Milla Jovovich’s Nimue the Blood Queen will serve as the primary antagonist while fans have also gotten a quick look at the Baba Yaga, though it has yet to be seen if she’ll serve as friend or foe.

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has gone on record saying the reboot is more comic-accurate than the previous two films. According to the creator, his involvement is very different this time around than it was with the two Guillermo del Toro films.

“It’s funny, because my involvement has been very different than the Del Toro movies,” Mignola said. “The difference is I had known Del Toro for six years by the time we did the first movie. Neil I met a couple months before he worked on the movie. It was very different, but I have been involved ever since they said ‘Hey we’re gonna make another Hellboy movie, and we’re gonna do this story.’”

“I’ve bounced back and forth with them about how to adapt this particular Hellboy story. At various times I’ve jumped in and been much more active in the screenplay than I ever was on the Del Toro movies. But I did nothing so far as design stuff on the movie,” the writer continued. “Guillermo wanted me as a concept artist, but on this movie, there were other concept artists. I came in and I looked at some stuff, but they were trying to do something so close to what’s on the comics that they really leaned on what had been done by Duncan [Fegredo] and me in the comics.”

Hellboy stars David harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Douglas Tait, and Sophie Okonedo amongst others. The Descent helmer Neil Marshall directs off a script from Andrew Cosby.

What do you think of the practical effects of Gruagach? Do you think any big surprises are in store for longtime Hellboy fans? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation online by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt!

Hellboy crashes into theaters April 12th.