‘Hellboy’ Reportedly Casts Thomas Haden Church as Lobster Johnson

Spider-Man 3 star Thomas Haden Church has reportedly joined the Hellboy reboot movie.

According to Discussing Film, Church will play pulp era vigilante Lobster Johnson.

Discussing Film points to Church’s interview with JoBlo from earlier this year as the first hint at this secret casting. The interviewer asked Church if he’d ever return to the superhero movie genre after playing Sandman in Spider-Man 3.

“I’m not supposed to talk about it, but I actually have returned, but not in the Marvel world, it’s another world, but it is in that genre of superheroes and supervillains,” Haden responded. “I’m not supposed to talk about it, it’s a movie I shot last year. They’re trying to keep it-and good luck to ’em-with, y’know, today man, I’m surprised it hasn’t already kinda been revealed.”

Church’s representatives have not commented on the report.

In Hellboy’s universe, Lobster Johnson was a vigilante active in the 1930s. Johnson was known for delivering violent justice. He would brand criminals with his Lobster claw symbol after beating them.

Lobster Johnson was an inspiration to Hellboy, who was young at the time the vigilante was active. Lobster Johnson’s influence on Hellboy can be seen in the BPRD agent Hellboy grew up to be.

It is unclear what role Lobster Johnson would play n the Hellboy movie.

Stranger Things star David Harbour plays Hellboy in the new film. The film’s script was co-written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. Mignola has spoken about Harbour taking over the role.

“It was really interesting with David because we met very briefly for 20 minutes when he was in town,” Mignola told io9 in June. “Then he would text me questions periodically with questions, like, ‘Are there any animals you thought of in the way Hellboy moves?’ And we were texting back and forth one night a lot about crazy stuff like that, and I finally said, ‘Dude, I am tired of typing, just call me.’ We must have had this two-hour conversation where we got into the way I grew up, what my brothers were like and all this stuff that fed into what Hellboy is. The attitudes, the characters, and stuff like that… and hopefully, it didn’t f— things up, because it was way more information and backstory to the creative process than anyone would ever need. But it did make for an interesting, long phone call. And I know David has his own ideas about how to interpret the character, but it was really nice that we had this one, really long conversation about where this stuff came from.”

Unfortunately, the first reactions from a test screening fo the film suggest it may not be everything fans are hoping for.

Do you want to see Thomas Haden Church as Lobster Johnson in Hellboy? Let us know in the comments!

Hellboy opens in theaters on April 12, 2019.