The Big Picture
- Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy films were critically acclaimed and considered among the best superhero movies of all time.
- Del Toro expressed interest in making a third Hellboy film, but faced setbacks including financial troubles and other project commitments.
- Despite the director and Ron Perlman's enthusiasm, Hellboy 3 was ultimately shelved due to a lack of financing and studio support. A reboot of the franchise was later produced with David Harbour but was poorly received.
Back in 2004, when the comic book movie phenomenon was starting to gain momentum thanks to the Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man film series, Guillermo Del Toro ventured into the genre with a very different franchise. Adapted from Mike Mignola’s supernatural horror comic book of the same name, Hellboy debuted with a stellar cast that included Ron Perlman in the titular role, Selma Blair as pyrokinetic agent and love interest Liz Sherman, and Doug Jones as amphibian hybrid agent Abe Sapien. The film debuted to critical success and spawned a sequel – Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Going with sci-fi movie tradition, a third film was expected to complete the trilogy, but a variety of setbacks never let it come to fruition.
Hellboy boasts an 81% fresh rating in Rotten Tomatoes, and its success holds up almost 20 years later, with Rolling Stone naming it one of the greatest superhero films of all time. Hellboy II: The Golden Army surpassed the first film with an 86% fresh rating. Even when it was released in the same year as Slumdog Millionaire, The Dark Knight and Iron Man, it stood out as one of the best films of 2008. The franchise had everything to succeed with a threequel, so why did it never happen?
RELATED: 'Hellboy: The Crooked Man': Cast, Plot, Director, and Everything We Know So Far
First of all, Del Toro is a busy man. Months before the release of the Hellboy sequel, he was hired to develop and direct The Hobbit. For nearly two years, not only was he attached to the film series but also deeply involved in a way that required all his attention. Due to several delays because of financial troubles that affected MGM, he dropped out in May 2010. Shortly after, in an interview with Collider, he gave the first Hellboy 3 news, stating the film had yet to be written and that it’d have to be shot after his next project, which was undefined at the moment. No update came again until Perlman appeared in full Hellboy costume and makeup on July 2012 at a Make-A-Wish function.
At Comic-Con 2012, while Del Toro and Perlman were promoting Pacific Rim, both stated they were together in trying to get the movie done. Perlman shared a little more detail, saying the trilogy would have an “unbelievable resolve” and that if the movie wasn’t done, it’d be “a little bit of a shame.” Regardless of what was spoken by the director and star, a year later creator Mignola would put the first nail in Hellboy 3’s coffin. In an interview with Comic Book Resources, he jokingly said his biggest PR challenge was giving endless explanations on two things – his Hellboy books not being released on a monthly basis and Hellboy 3 never seeing the light of day.
'Hellboy 3': A (Sort Of) New Hope
Though Del Toro didn’t like giving bits and pieces as updates, in a Shock Til You Drop interview he stated that Legendary Pictures head Thomas Tull said he’d love to see Hellboy 3 – not exactly saying he’d do it – but Del Toro was hopeful they could have that talk eventually. Perlman said he loved working both with Del Toro and Legendary for Pacific Rim, detailing the latter was very supportive of the former’s vision. He then added he secretly hoped for them to come together again to give a resolution to the Hellboy trilogy.
At one point, since Del Toro was busy with Crimson Peak, he proposed making Hellboy 3 a comic book, an idea which Mignola shut down to avoid confusion with his comic run. And then the real issue came afloat: financing. In a Reddit AMA, Del Toro said the “very interesting ending to the series” was unlikely to happen. Since the first two films barely broke even, no studio was eager to produce Hellboy 3. He added that home video sales helped the numbers of both films but now – in the streaming era – that revenue wasn’t guaranteed anymore.
The Final Nail In 'Hellboy 3’s Coffin
At Comic-Con 2014, Del Toro mentioned a semi-deal with Legendary in which, if Pacific Rim: Uprising was successful, they’d fund Hellboy 3. Ultimately, Del Toro ceded the director’s chair to Steven S. DeKnight and the deal fell through. No new updates came after that, only a tragic tweet by Del Toro himself on February 2017, stating the threequel was 100% dead and that nothing else would be said on the topic.
Shortly after, a new Hellboy film was announced with Millenium Media producing and Mignola being directly involved in the story (in early stages, as the writing credit went solely to Andrew Cosby). At one point they considered continuing the universe established in the previous films but – after Del Toro declined to produce if he wasn’t directing and Perlman declined to be involved without Del Toro – they decided to reboot the franchise completely. Neil Marshall was tapped to direct and David Harbour was cast as the new Hellboy, with Milla Jovovich as the main antagonist, the Blood Queen. Given Mignola’s support and the R rating, plus having Del Toro’s films as shoes to fill, great things were expected from the reboot. The end result was a dumpster fire.
Del Toro’s Hellboy should’ve been a trilogy. A combination of factors truncated the endgame, but it’s clear money and time constraints were the main issue. The disposition of the director and star was there throughout the years and in-between projects. It’s a shame that studios weren’t willing to invest $120 million (the amount alone is The Flash’s marketing budget!) on a director with a unique view that makes gold from everything he touches. As of now, Millenium Media is taking a second shot at recapturing the character’s magic with Hellboy: The Crooked Man, which just wrapped filming. Now helmed by Brian Taylor and starring Jack Kesy, the fourth film in the franchise will now have a script by Mignola himself. Still, it’s a time of multiverses and rebirth, so the slim possibility of reviving Del Toro’s threequel is there, just waiting for someone who is willing to take the bull Hellboy by the horns.
