Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy and co-writer of the upcoming reboot film, recently revealed that the original plan was to finish the Hellboy trilogy. This was the plan even after the director of the first two films Guillermo del Toro left the franchise. But it was the addition of a new face and a new voice to the project that motivated the franchise towards a full reboot.
In a recent interview with Nerdist, Mignola says that the new film was always meant to keep the continuity of the original two, but director Neil Marshall thought the franchise should start over:
“We originally started trying to tie it to the del Toro universe and continue those movies. 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.”
Mignola also spoke about how David Harbour is getting ready for the role of Hellboy:
“[David] is super excited about being Hellboy and he wants to make sure he gets it right. He’s texting me Hellboy questions about his history, about what the character would think about this or about that. It’s really exciting to be back and see this thing come together.”
The reboot will take the franchise into darker territory. It will allow the character and the story to be fully realized as it was meant to be. The comics are dark and gory. This is something that can only be done right with an R-Rating, which is something the production is shooting for.
