Mignola reveals Hellboy reboot was originally tied to Del Toro movies

The news of a Hellboy reboot took many fans by surprise, since it meant director Gullermo del Toro would never complete his planned trilogy. Speaking with Nerdist, the character’s creator, Mike Mignola (and co-writer of the upcoming film), revealed they originally thought about keeping the movie in the same universe as the previous two.

“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.”

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Mignola isn’t the only one excited, as he revealed star David Harbour is getting into the role at all hours of the day.

“[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.”

Lionsgate is in final talks to distribute the upcoming reboot, which is titled Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen. David Harbour of Stranger Things will star as the titular hero, with Neil Marshall (The Descent, Game of Thrones) set to direct from a script from Andrew Cosby (Eureka), Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola. Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin will produce with Mike Richardson of Dark Horse Entertainment.