Hellboy stars Ron Perlman and Selma Blair responded to the reboot’s just-released first trailer by paying tribute to the original 2004 Guillermo del Toro-directed film.
Blair, who played the fiery Liz, shared on Instagram a Polaroid photo captured on the set of Hellboy and tagged Perlman, who Blair wrote is “forever my Red” and “the realest deal, a diamond.”
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Perlman reposted a mini-trailer, without comment, advertising Hellboy‘s availability on streaming giant Netflix.
Both posts came on the day Lionsgate debuted its first look at the reboot from director Neil Marshall (Game of Thrones, Westworld) that sees David Harbour (Stranger Things) assume the role of the gruff, half-demon B.P.R.D. field agent.
Perlman, who long hoped to reunite with del Toro on a never-made Hellboy III, admitted as recently as November the start-from-scratch approach with the franchise remains for him 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 said. “So if you ask me about it, it’s kind of still an open wound.”
The project, a long shot after 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army failed to take off at the box office, was something Perlman “never thought” would go through — but the Pacific Rim and The Shape of Water director had an “amazing idea of how to close the trilogy,” Perlman said.
“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.”
He has since said he’s “pretty much at peace” with the unresolved trilogy after what he called “as noble a fight as we could” to finish out the franchise.
“But it wasn’t to be,” he told Ain’t It Cool in December. “I have completely moved on and what happens in the future in regard to that title is really none of my business.”
Harbour, who had a sit-down with Perlman over dinner, told the WTF with Marc Maron podcast it was “not a great situation” that led to the series’ restart, including excessive budgets and a too-long wait time.
“I think that the one thing that’s a little weird is everybody now asks him about it and I think he’s annoyed at that,” Harbour said.
“So he’s said some things about it on Twitter where he’s just like, ‘Just don’t ask me anymore,’ and I think it’s… don’t ask him anymore. He likes me, he was very kind to me, and he was like, ‘Good luck, kid.’”
Starring Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, and Ian McShane, Hellboy opens April 12.
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