Mike Mignola shocked the world when he announced the
Hellboy reboot, especially after all the trouble Guillermo del Toro went through trying to get a third film made. He, or series star Ron Perlman, would tease meetings that would take place, only to ultimately disappoint fans by saying no deal had been struck.
When Mignola announced the new film, he confirmed that the series was being rebooted by naming
Stranger Things star David Harbour as the new Hellboy. However, this wasn't always the case. Speaking to
Nerdist, he revealed that they came up with an idea to continue del Torro's story, but the director wasn't a fan.
“I would’ve loved to see Guillermo do his third movie and finish that story," he explained.
"But over the years it became very clear that wasn’t going to happen. About three years ago the producers, the screenwriter Andrew Cosby, and I all started working on this new story. Del Toro didn’t want to have anything to do with it, he wasn’t going to direct. He was offered to be a producer, and Ron [Perlman] wouldn’t do it without Guillermo.”
With del Torro out, Mignola and company came to an epiphany.
"So we originally started trying to tie it to the del Toro universe and continue those movies," he continued.
"But once we had Neil Marshall, we thought, ‘Why are we going to try and continue that universe?’ Because a del Toro movie is a del Toro movie, and you don’t want to try and hand a del Toro movie to someone else. Especially someone as great as Neil Marshall. So that’s when it went from being this continuation to being a reboot. It’s exciting to have another director. It’s exciting to take another path, to take that material and give it another leaning.”
For the latest on
Hellboy: Rise Of The Blood Queen, check out the
Hellboy section of the CBM Index.