In 2019, 11 years after the release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, David Harbour took over as the Dark Horse Comics character for a reboot directed by Neil Marshall and written by Andrew Cosby. Unlike the Guillermo del Toro-helmed and Ron Perlman-led Hellboy movies, this reboot that co-starred Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane and Dane Dae Kim was poorly reviewed (we gave Hellboy 2 out of 5 stars) and bombed at the box office, resulting in plans for a sequel that would have introduced a “vastly different” Abe Sapien being scrapped. However, now it’s rumored that another Hellboy movie in the works, which will lead many of you reading this to ask one question: will Harbour be back?
According to DiscussingFilm, Millennium Media, one of the production companies behind 2019’s Hellboy, is actively developing a new live-action Hellboy movie, which Crank and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance director Brian Taylor has been tapped to helm. In fact, development is reportedly so far along that casting is currently underway and production is scheduled to begin this April in Bulgaria, one of the places where 2019’s Hellboy, as well as Millennium’s Red Sonja reboot, filmed. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and author Christopher Golden, who did reportedly uncredited work on the last Hellboy movie and has written three Hellboy novels, are both receiving story credits for this new movie, but it’s unclear if they’ve done any actual work on the screenplay
As for whether David Harbour will appear in this new Hellboy movie, it’s looking unlikely. Given the 2019 reboot’s underwhelming performance, the next movie is expected to be another reboot. Not only that, but since that David Harbour is already set to reprise Red Guardian (a role that helped make up for Hellboy flopping) in Thunderbolts, and Jim Hopper in Stranger Things’ fifth and final season, it’s doubtful he’d have time to play Hellboy again anyway. Besides, it doesn’t sound like Harbour had the best experience on Hellboy, so one wouldn’t fault him for not wanting to return to the eponymous role.
So if there is indeed a Hellboy reboot coming down the pipeline, we’ll have to wait and see who the next actor is to take on this character who made his comics debut in 1993. This new movie’s working title is reportedly Hellboy: The Crooked Man, but it’s unclear if this is just a placeholder or if it will actually be based on the same-named miniseries that was published in 2008. The reboot also doesn’t have a distributor yet, so it remains to be seen if this will be another theatrical release or if it’ll be released on a streaming platform, like directly to Netflix subscribers.
Stay tuned for official confirmation about if another Hellboy movie is moving forward, and until then, use your HBO Max subscription to stream both the 2004 and 2019 version of Hellboy. If you’d rather watch Hellboy II: The Golden Army, you’ll need access to Starz.
