Hellboy has been played by three actors in live-action at this stage, but for the majority of fans, Ron Perlman's take on the cigar-chomping demon simply won't be bettered.
Perlman has been asked about potentially reprising the role on a number of occasions over the years, and has always suggested that his days taking down monsters with the Right Hand of Doom are well behind him.
However, the actor gave a slightly more optimistic response during a new interview with Deadline.
"I’ve said so much about this and pissed off enough people, but I’ll say it again for you: the original movies were meant to be a trilogy. In 'Hellboy II,' we left off at a very awkward moment where the Liz Sherman character is pregnant with twins, and none of the promises of Hellboy being summoned into existence to destroy the world has been addressed. That would all have been in the third film, and I’ll always advocate for the making of the third film. I’m not interested in doing any other version of Hellboy other than finishing the trilogy with Guillermo [Del Toro]. It would be so epic. Like a Greek epic. Hubris, hamartia, destiny, nature vs nurture, it would be such an adventure. I’m 76 now, and if he comes to me and I’m 86, we’ll still do the mother[frick]er."
When asked if he's spoken to Del Toro about a third movie, Perlman said: "No comment."
It certainly sounds as if it might be an idea the actor and filmmaker are at least discussing, if not considering.
As for Del Toro, is there a chance the Frankenstein director might be convinced to return to the franchise? Given how poorly the last two adaptations have been received critically and commercially, we would be surprised if the filmmaker has been approached, but whether he'd actually be tempted to take the helm is another matter.
Here's what Hellboy creator Mike Mignola had to say about the possibility of working with Del Toro on a third movie during a 2024 interview with Screen Rant.
"Being able to look back now, I'm very happy about the time I spent with him. We had some adventures, and I just think we've both moved on in different directions. When you work on movies, especially if you're on the movie set, there's so much intensity day in, day out with these people — with the actors, with the director — and then when it's over, it's just over. It's a very strange feeling [where] you just go, 'I thought we were friends for life, but I’ll never actually see you again,' and, unfortunately, I think that's kind of where del Toro and I are. He's just on another planet. I'm very glad I got to know him and work with him back when working on a movie was five or six guys, and not the career he has now. But we still speak or email occasionally."