For the longest time, director Guillermo del Toro tried to get Hellboy 3 off the ground. The end of Hellboy II left the door wide open for a sequel involving Big Red (Ron Perlman) having a couple hellions of his own with his girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), not to mention fulfilling his destiny as the beast of the apocalypse. Unfortunately, that project is dead, and this year’s reboot doubled down on that by leaving the franchise in the dust. But there was another chance for us to see that story play out.

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola recently revealed that Guillermo del Toro approached him with the idea of creating a Hellboy 3 comic book adaptation for fans who wanted to see the trilogy complete. But Mignola turned him down.

ScreenRant talked to Mike Mignola recently, and that’s where he made the frustrating revelation:

“I think del Toro mentioned it to me once, and I said no. I think, let the comics be the comics. Comics are confusing enough for people. Let’s not have two different versions of the ‘Hellboy’ comic out there. My vote would be to say no.”

So it’s too confusing to have two different comic book versions of Hellboy, but having two different cinematic versions of the character is perfectly fine? Considering the Hellboy reboot bombed at the box office and got blasted by critics, we’d say audiences had no problem distinguishing between this new Hellboy and the superior franchise from Guillermo del Toro. So surely they wouldn’t have a problem understanding that a comic adaptation of Hellboy 3 has nothing to do with the canon comic book series.

Honestly, this feels like Mike Mignola having a little too much ego and not wanting Guillermo del Toro to infringe upon his comic territory. After all, the two reportedly clashed while making the first two Hellboy movies, mostly because del Toro didn’t see any reason to stay loyal to the source material, opting for a more fantastical approach to the comic. So here we are, stuck without any medium in which for us to see Hellboy 3.

Instead, all we can do is read this explanation of what Hellboy 3 would entail from a Reddit AMA five years ago:

“The idea for it was to have Hellboy finally come to terms with the fact that his destiny, his inevitable destiny, is to become the beast of the Apocalypse, and having him and Liz face the sort of, that part of his nature, and he has to do it, in order to be able to ironically vanquish the foe that he has to face in the 3rd film. He has to become the best of the Apocalypse to be able to defend humanity, but at the same time he becomes a much darker being. It’s a very interesting ending to the series, but I don’t think it will happen.”

Maybe if fans implore Mike Mignola to change his mind, we might see Hellboy 3 turned into a comic. But for now, it would seem that the prospect of Guillermo del Toro finishing his Hellboy trilogy in any form is dead in the water, and that’s as frustrating as ever.