One movie based on comic books most anticipated by the drooling legions of nerds around the world is the Hellboy reboot, which if I’m not mistaken will be released in 2019. Sure, there’s still a tiny hint of disappointment, at least for me, whenever I think that we won’t be getting another Hellboy movie directed by Guillermo Del Toro and featuring Ron Perlman as big Red, but it’s still a joy knowing that the character’s alive and well in the minds of fans and creators everywhere. Now, I’m simply here to tell you about the upcoming reboot, what to expect and such, and to reminisce a bit about that bygone era in which the first two Hellboy movies were released, where superhero movie franchises were just a twinkle in some cokehead Hollywood executive’s dilated pupil. Give this old fool a break.
So, to start off, what can we expect from the upcoming reboot? Well, first of all, it’s going to have a new star playing Anung Un Rama: David Harbour. Now, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the guy recently, given his amazing performance as detective Jim Hopper in Netflix’s Stranger Things series and how that show’s fan base don’t know how to shut their pie holes about how amazing David Harbour is. Going back to the Hellboy reboot, I know it’s pretty much a universal impossibility, but early photos of the actor in full Hellboy makeup and garb didn’t seem to be met by rage from those Mountain Dew-guzzling neckbeards. Or, maybe I’m just too preoccupied with how great David Harbour looks as Hellboy that I was able to tune out those gnats. Either way, things are looking awesome so far, so I hope the movie delivers come its release.
Now, why exactly didn’t we get a third Del Toro Hellboy? There are a lot of reasons floating around, so it won’t be easy to identify that single turning point for the franchise. For one, a huge part of the second sequel’s cancellation was due to budgetary reasons; Universal thought doing another Hellboy movie would be too much of a risk if they threw a large amount of money in its production. Secondly, there’s the schedule: Guillermo Del Toro has been handling project upon project constantly ever since he did “Hellboy: the Golden Army,” with his most recent movie entitled “The Shape of Water” prepping up to become one of his most acclaimed. Good for him.
Looking back, I think the reason that there are people who think the second Hellboy movie was inferior to the first one is because of this: escalation. To me, both installments are equally great, worthy of re-watches even if only for the sake of nostalgia. The problem is that the first Hellboy movie’s plot had more stakes to it compared to the second one. I mean, come on: if you already won against the primordial gods of chaos, then you sure as hell (no pun intended) would win against some elf with a robot army. But, I suggest you try this: watch “Hellboy: The Golden Army” first and the first movie after that. You’ll see what I’m talking about.
