Ron Perlman Says He Would Return as Hellboy to Finish the Trilogy

Hellboy star Ron Perlman is, in his own words, game to suit up and don the red paint and horns again, to finish the Hellboy movie trilogy. Perlman was the actor who starred in Guillermo Del Toro's original Hellboy movie (2004) and its sequel, Hellboy: The Golden Army (2009), which were released by Universal. However, he left the role after both films failed to even generate $200 million at the worldwide box office (respectively). The Hellboy franchise stalled out for a decade before Lionsgate took over and took a shot with director Neil Marshall's vision of Hellboy (2019), with David Harbour (Stranger Things) taking over the titular role. 

At this point, nobody would figure that Ron Perlman would want to make a return to the Hellboy franchise – but that's exactly what the Sons of Anarchy star said he would do, while overseas promoting the Kuwaiti film How I Got There, in which he plays a mercenary/gun runner: 

"If we were to make the third movie of the trilogy, I would love to do that, yeah," Perlman told Geek House Show. "It was meant to be three movies, so I would go back and do it if we could finish the trilogy. But those are the only circumstances."

Ron Perlman has been somewhat relentless about pushing to get Hellboy 3 made – especially since he's running out of years to make it: 

"Am I eager to do Hellboy 3? No, I'm 71 f-cking years old," Perlman told The Independent last year. "We owe this to the fans. And we should give it to them because it would be an epic conclusion. So Guillermo, if you're reading, I'm not done pounding you to get this f-cking thing done."

The chances of Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy 3 happening are all but non-existent, right now. Yet another reboot film, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, is in development,  a more horror-movie-themed take on the character that wrapped filming in early summer of this year under the direction of Crank director Brian Taylor (half of director duo Taylor and Neveldine). Jack Kesy (Black Tom in Deadpool 2) will be playing the role of Hellboy, and when ComicBook.com talked to Perlman at the premiere of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (in which he voices Optimus Primal), the actor seemed to have made his peace with the notion that the Hellboy franchise is moving on without him: 

"What happens with the character and the franchise on the periphery of any of that is none of my business," Perlman said. "I prefer to just dwell in the feeling that I continue to have having played him and having played him for one of the great directors." He also stated that "I was very happy with the version that Guillermo and I involved ourselves with. I thought we killed it, we knocked it out of the park."

Hellboy: The Crooked Man has a theatrical release date of May 30, 2024.