The Right Hand of Doom will return to the silver screen next month, but those familiar with the previous Hellboy movies should be prepared for a brand new take on the hero from hell. Though Guillermo del Toro planned to make a threequel for years, this is a straight up reboot of the franchise based on the Dark Horse comics.
Ron Perlman exited along with his director and so Stranger Things‘ David Harbour has stepped in to sport the horns in Neil Marshall’s film. There’s something of a bittersweet atmosphere surrounding the movie, then, as fans are excited to see more of Hellboy but are saddened by the lack of closure to the del Toro/Perlman iteration.
One actor’s teased that folks are going to be surprised by the film, though, and promised that there’s lots to look forward to. Ian McShane plays Hellboy’s adoptive father Professor “Broom” Bruttenholm in the flick and here’s what he had to say to The New York Times on the topic.
“Hellboy, yeah! I think that’s going to surprise a lot of people. David [Harbour of Stranger Things] is a marvelous actor. He just fills out the role. It was nice and bittersweet taking over [Professor Bruttenholm] from a dear old friend of mine, John Hurt. But it’s not Part 3. It’s a complete reboot of [Guillermo del Toro’s] Hellboy, and I think they picked the right guy in David. It was a pleasure to work with him and be in Bulgaria for three weeks, a country I’ve never been to before. Greatest fresh vegetables I’ve ever tasted. And the scripts are funny and smart and bright, and the action is fantastic, and I have grandkids who love all that. They can’t wait.”
It sounds like McShane had a great time making the film and fully endorses Harbour as the perfect Hellboy. From what we’ve seen in the trailers, the actor’s definitely made the role his own. Despite his fearsome features, Perlman’s Hellboy was a relatively cuddly soul underneath it all. Harbour’s version still works to save the world rather than end it, but he looks a lot tougher and darker. For instance, we can’t imagine this iteration of the antihero drunkenly singing love ballads with Abe Sapien like in Hellboy II.
Fans might be split on the film, with even Perlman himself throwing shade at the remake, but we’ll take McShane’s comments on board and go in expecting something very different from past movies in the series when Hellboy is summoned up from the underworld into cinemas on April 12th.
