Ron Perlman, who portrayed Hellboy in Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), said recently that he would like to return to portray the character in a third film despite being “71 f—ing years old.” A third Hellboy film is not officially in development at this time.
Del Toro's Hellboy films were planned as a trilogy, but when the 2008 sequel failed to break $200 million at the box office, the studio canceled plans for the third film, leaving the series unconcluded for going on 14 years now. The franchise was rebooted in 2019 with neither del Toro nor Perlman involved. David Harbour (Stranger Things) was cast in the lead role and Neil Marshall (The Descent) took over directing. That reboot bombed and even after an international release, the box office revenue wasn’t able to cover the film’s $50 million budget.
Speaking to UK newspaper The Independent, Perlman elaborated on his commitment to portraying the comic book character. “Am I eager to do Hellboy 3? No, I’m 71 f—ing years old. [But] we owe this to the fans, and we should give it to them because it would be an epic conclusion," Perlman said. "So Guillermo, if you’re reading, I’m not done pounding you to get this fucking thing done.” So far, del Toro has not responded to Perlman's comments.
At the time the reboot was being developed, Perlman revealed he had been offered a part but turned it down. “The only version of Hellboy I’m interested in is the one I do with Guillermo,” Perlman explained. Harbour also laid the failure of the movie at the feet of fans who had no desire to see Hellboy without either Perlman in the title role or del Toro at the helm. Writing on social media after the reboot’s release, Harbour said, “the loudness of the internet was like, ‘We do not want you to touch this.’ People were just very very against it and that’s people’s right.”
Again, a third Hellboy from del Toro with Perlman attached has not been announced, and while Perlman isn’t getting any younger, del Toro may be too busy with his other, higher prestige projects to return to the franchise. His psychological thriller Nightmare Alley, starring Bradley Cooper (Limitless), was just released in theaters last month and will stream on Hulu and HBO Max starting February 1st.
His next film, the stop-motion musical Pinocchio, has had a rocky production but will stream on Netflix in December 2022. There’s also the possibility that Universal's decision back in 2008 to cancel the conclusion of the series has left some bad blood between director and studio.
Hellboy (2004) is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: The Independent