Hellboy Creator Announces R-Rated Movie Reboot

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has announced plans to reboot the Hellboy movie franchise, this time as an R-rated flick starring Stranger Things‘ David Harbour. Mignola made the announcement on Facebook this evening, claiming that Neil Marshall (Game of Thrones, The Descent) was attached to direct.

Shortly after Mignola broke the news on Facebook, Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the production company Millenium was in negotiations for the reboot, with a working title of “Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen”. Notably, THR reports that neither original movie star Ron Perlman nor original director Guillermo del Toro will be involved in the rebooted series at all. According to THR, producers opted for a reboot after they couldn’t reach a compromise with del Toro over the planned movie’s budget.

Hellboy was originally created in 1993 by Mignola and has starred in multiple mini-series and comics published by Dark Horse over the years. A demon brought to Earth during an occult Nazi ceremony during World War II, Hellboy became an unlikely defender of Earth, even while resisting his infernal lineage.

The Hellboy franchise uniquely mixes folklore, horror, religious iconography, science fiction, and Lovecraftian horror, along with a ton of good ol’ fashioned action. Hellboy’s popularity also spawned a spinoff series starring agents of the B.P.R.D., the paranormal agency that Hellboy was associated with for years.

The first Hellboy movie hit theaters in 2004, starring Perlman, Doug Jones, and Selma Blair. Although both Hellboy and its 2008 sequel The Golden Army performed well in the box office, del Toro and Perlman couldn’t get a planned third movie off the ground despite years of lobbying and a grass root campaign. Hellboy also starred in two animated movies, although a planned third movie was unexpectedly put on hold.

Mignola recently ended the main Hellboy series in 2016 with the 10 issue series Hellboy in Hell. Although Hellboy’s story has officially ended, Dark Horse is still publishing a Hellboy and the BPRD series featuring Hellboy’s adventures during the 1950s.