'Hellboy' Creator Mike Mignola on How the New Movie is Not a Superhero Movie

It sounds like Lionsgate's upcoming Hellboy reboot could be a one-of-a-kind entry into the comic book movie world.

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola recently talked about the upcoming David Harbour-led reboot film in an interview with io9. As Mignola revealed, the reboot is definitely not conforming to the tropes of a superhero movie, even more so than the previous Hellboy films did.

"Well, I mean, if anything, we're trying to do something very different." Mignola explained. "Basically, there's no part of Hellboy that was ever going to be like other superhero movies. And the more Marvel stuff there is, the more DC stuff there is, Hellboy never really feels like—even in the [Guillermo] del Toro things—a superhero movie. It's so much "big teams of guys, in costumes, running around and saving the world from big cosmic menace stuff..." I believe the new movie will feel even less like a regular superhero thing. The idea with this one was to make it play much less like a superhero film, to downplay the superhero elements even more than del Toro did. This one is much more folklore/mythology/horror, and not 'big team rushing into to do battle with whatever kind of stuff.'"

For die-hard fans of Hellboy, this probably isn't too shocking of news, especially considering the unique qualities of the source material. Still, in the age of increased "superhero movie fatigue", it's probably comforting that the film will honor the source material.

"[The comics] seem much more macabre to me, they seem much more melancholy, they seem much more primal, more struggle, more angst," Harbour said in an interview earlier this year. "And I felt like those other two movies were funnier and brighter and kind of sillier in a way, which was great for what it was. But, I thought to approach this material in a different light and to do something completely different than what they had done."

Hellboy - which was previously titled Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen - is being directed by Game of Thrones and The Descent's Neil Marshall. In addition to Harbour, the film's cast will include Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim, Penelope Mitchell, Sophie Okonedo, Brian Gleeson, and Alistair Petrie.

Are you excited to see the Hellboy reboot? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Hellboy is expected to land in theaters on January 11, 2019.