Ron Perlman Comments On New Hellboy Star David Harbour

Earlier this month, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola announced that an R-rated reboot of the Hellboy movie franchise is in the works and will star David Harbour — best known for playing Sheriff Hopper on the Netflix original series Stranger Things — as the tough, rough, kitten-loving superhero.

For fans, the news of the reboot — titled Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen — has to be bittersweet. On one hand, it’s wonderful that Hellboy is getting another shot at the big screen, and its more mature rating will give it freedom to be as violent as it likes. While on the other hand, it is the death knell for Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman‘s Hellboy film series — which had planned to make a third and final film, but it was stuck in development-hell due to budgetary concerns.

This weekend, while appearing at Motor City Comic Con, Perlman had nothing but nice things to say about the next actor to don the Right Hand of Doom. “David Harbour is a good dude,” the 67-year-old actor told the crowd (via Dread Central). “I wish him nothing but the best when it comes to the retooling of HB.”

However, Perlman still thinks about what might have been. “The third one was meant to be epic and conclusive and a resolve for all these, almost, Greek oracle promises of the destiny of Hellboy,” he explained. “It would’ve made for a really good movie, I think.”

Mignola created Hellboy in 1993. Hellboy is a demon summoned to Earth by Nazi scientists, but who was recovered as a child by the Allies and raised by the head of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, or BPRD. Hellboy grew up to become a member of the BPRD himself, investigating supernatural occurrences and fighting monsters.

Hellboy‘s blend of vintage pulp action and mystery, folklore, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy has turned it into one of Dark Horse Comics’ best-known publications, spawning several spin-offs such as a BPRD series, Lobster Johnson, and a prequel series titled Hellboy and the BPRD. Mignola recently killed Hellboy himself but continued to tell his story in the after in the pages of the 10-issue Hellboy in Hell series. The expanded “Mignola-verse” offers plenty of material for an expanded film and television universe.

Hellboy has also appeared in two animated features, Sword of Storms and Blood and Iron, as well as two video games, Asylum Seeker and The Science of Evil.

MORE: David Harbour Comments On Hellboy Reboot Casting / Mike Mignola Announces Hellboy Movie Reboot / Hellboy’s Hell Water Whiskey