Like The Crow, there's not exactly a huge amount of excitement surrounding Hellboy: The Crooked Man. With only Deadpool & Wolverine and Joker: Folie à Deux heading our way this year from Marvel and DC, 2024 is a good opportunity for those more obscure characters to draw the interest of superhero fans.
Unfortunately, neither of them looks particularly good if the trailers are anything to go by and the odds are heavily stacked against The Crooked Man. Guillermo del Toro's movies remain beloved and 2019's failed reboot has already raised questions about whether Hellboy can work on screen.
In an interview with Total Film, director Brian Taylor (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) made it clear he isn't looking to imitate what's come before.
"I don’t think in terms of 'it’s a reboot' or trying to start a new franchise – this isn’t content, it’s a movie that needs to stand on its own," the filmmaker explains. "Nobody wants to see a cheap knock-off of a Guillermo del Toro $100-million movie. This is going back to the young Hellboy where he was really more of the plumber who’s going to fix your monster problem."
"This wandering, sarcastic, soulful, smoking guy who stumbles on supernatural hauntings and occurrences and helps out as best he can," Taylor adds. "If Mike [Mignola] feels like for the first time he sees his guy on screen, then I feel like we’ve succeeded."
The site also caught up with lead star Jack Kesy. The Deadpool 2 actor is being transformed into Big Red for Hellboy: The Crooked Man and has embraced the pressure of following in the footsteps of Ron Perlman and David Harbour as the iconic character.
"You know what, I love a good challenge, I've always been like that so I was excited to take it on," Kesy said. "Everyone, the supporters, the haters, whoever, bring them on. You know it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You always get an opportunity to play people similar to yourself but when do you get a chance to be in full prosthetic, playing iconic characters? The excitement topped everything."
He added, "[I was] definitely not a comic book guy but I definitely learned on the job and I had fans reach out to me right away and they've been telling me things that I didn't know about comic books."
"I love the Hellboy fans. I’ve actually known them now for over a year, I still write them back mostly through some social media and they send me little facts and little photos and just little stuff that I may have overlooked. I'm excited with them."
A new look at Kesy's Hellboy has also been revealed. You can check that out below.
Stranded in 1950s rural Appalachia, Hellboy and a rookie BPRD agent discover a small community haunted by witches, led by the Crooked Man, a local devil with a troubling connection to Hellboy's past.
Brian Taylor directs Hellboy: The Crooked Man from a script by Mike Mignola and Chris Golden. The cast is led by Jack Kesy as Hellboy, Jefferson White as Tom Ferrell, and Adeline Rudolph playing Bobbie Jo Song. We'll also see Leah McNamara as Effie Kolb, Joseph Marcell as Reverend Watts, Hannah Margetson as Cora Fisher, and Martin Bassindale as the Crooked Man.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man is set to be released later this year.