It’s going on *checks calendar* 12 years since Hellboy waged war against the Golden Army, and we’re beginning to wish Big Red – the Guillermo del Toro version, that is – hung around long enough to enjoy the Golden Age of Superhero Movies.
Had things panned out differently, we may have got a chance to see del Toro and co. create an R-rated Hellboy movie, one which prodded the darker corners of Mike Mignola’s source material.
Alas, soon after The Golden Army premiered, it quickly became apparent that del Toro and Ron Perlman would never return to Big Red, leaving Lionsgate with the keys to the kingdom. Fast forward to 2019, and moviegoers laid eyes on a middling reboot headed up by David Harbour of Stranger Things fame, and while Neil Marshall’s fantasy flick wasn’t without its highlights, it only made us miss del Toro’s version that little bit more.
Indeed, there are those who believe Guillermo del Toro’s first two Hellboy films were ahead of their time – like this Film School Rejects article, for instance, which caught the eye of the esteemed filmmaker, prompting this impassioned series of tweets:
What allowed the two films to exist, it’s gone. The Blu-ray DVD performance of the first Hellboy was massive. So big that Ben Feingold, at Columbia, went full-on on the sequel development. Ben was so impressed by those numbers that he made ‘Hellboy’ one of the very first Blu-rays from Columbia. Far as I can recall, the number for home video surpassed theatrical.
So whatever magic that allowed Hellboy and its starry sequel, The Golden Army, to be made… no longer exists. As far as Guillermo del Toro is concerned, his version of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense has shut its doors for good, meaning there’s no chance of Ron Perlman ever reprising the titular role of humanity’s unlikely savior.
It’s disappointing, of course, but it’s clear that Hellboy 3 – or whatever title del Toro had in mind for the fantasy threequel – will never see the warm light of day.
