Neil Marshall’s upcoming Hellboy, starring David Harbour (“Stranger Things”) in the title role, is going to be a way different film than Guillermo del Toro’s two Hellboy movies. We’ve recently been told that it’s going to be a darker, rated R vision, based on a story told over three Mike Mignola-penned, Duncan Fegredo-illustrated miniseries’ in the world of comics: Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, and The Storm and the Fury.

How involved has Mignola been in the process? And how faithful will the new movie be to the world he created on the page? Mignola relayed some info in a chat with EW.

“It’s funny, because my involvement has been very different than the Del Toro movies,” Mignola told the site. “The difference is I had known Del Toro for six years by the time we did the first movie. Neil I met a couple months before he worked on the movie. It was very different, but I have been involved ever since they said ‘Hey we’re gonna make another Hellboy movie, and we’re gonna do this story.’ I’ve bounced back and forth with them about how to adapt this particular Hellboy story.”

He continued, “At various times I’ve jumped in and been much more active in the screenplay than I ever was on the Del Toro movies. But I did nothing so far as design stuff on the movie. Guillermo wanted me as a concept artist, but on this movie, there were other concept artists. I came in and I looked at some stuff, but they were trying to do something so close to what’s on the comics that they really leaned on what had been done by Duncan [Fegredo] and me in the comics.”

“The first film was based on one of the comics, but Del Toro was looking to reinvent everything. I think the difference is here, the bulk of the Fegredo arc takes place in the real world,” Mignola added. “So instead of making up a whole fantasy world, it was, ‘Let’s find locations that feel like these real-world locales that Duncan drew in the comic.’ I think the bulk of the characters in the film are established in the comic. It was insane for me to walk in there and see that someone did a really nice rendering of a creature I created or Duncan created. It’s got a whole different feel from the older movies. Duncan’s not working on it, but I did see stuff in the movie that was so close to what Duncan drew, more so than what was in the previous movies. It was pretty exciting.”

Milla Jovovich stars in the new film as the Blood Queen, with Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim and Penelope Mitchell. Also starring are Sophie Okonedo (After Earth), Brian Gleeson (mother!) and Alistair Petrie (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).

The plot follows the hero and his ragtag team of paranormal researchers who are trying to save the world from a medieval sorceress who wants to destroy humankind.

Look for the return of Hellboy on January 11, 2019.