Hellboy fans have had to come to terms with some mixed emotions over the past year. On the one hand, yay – a new movie is happening! On the other, it isn’t a third entry in Guillermo del Toro’s beloved series but rather, a reboot with Neil Marshall taking the franchise in a fresh direction with Stranger Things‘ David Harbour suiting up as the heroic demon.
Whatever fans think of the changeover from Ron Perlman to Harbour, it must be awkward for the actors themselves. Del Toro and his leading star campaigned for years to get Hellboy 3Â off the ground and now, their hopes have been dashed by this reboot. It turns out that the two have actually had dinner together though and while it’s not “a great situation,” Harbour and Perlman apparently got along very well.
Harbour discussed his meeting with the former Hellboy recently while speaking with host Marc Maron on the WTF podcast. He explained that, as far as he’s aware, del Toro and Perlman are still somewhat upset that a third movie never happened but he feels that they’ve both come to understand that it’s just one of those things.
“A little bit, I mean, it was not a great situation. They did two, him and Guillermo del Toro, and they, I think, wanted to make their third, but I think a lot of issues came up. I think budgets were too big, I think that they took a lot of time, they waited too long, so I think they wanted to do something else, they wanted to do something different with it.”
“[The filmmakers] came to me and it was a very different concept, a very different idea, and there was initially some bluster around it and I think everybody kind of got it and Ron got it. He came and we had dinner and he was just really cool.”
If Perlman does have a hang-up about the process, Harbour thinks that it’s that he can’t avoid being asked for his opinion on the Hellboy reboot. Understandably, he’s tired of being pressed for info on a project he has nothing to do with.
“I think that the one thing that’s a little weird is everybody now asks him about it and I think he’s annoyed at that. So he’s said some things about it on Twitter where he’s just like, ‘Just don’t ask me anymore,’ and I think it’s…don’t ask him anymore. He likes me, he was very kind to me, and he was like, ‘Good luck, kid.'”
The last time we heard Perlman speak on the topic of Hellboy, the actor said that the character and the franchise was now in his “rearview mirror” and he had no regrets about where his career had taken him. It’s good to know that he supports his successor though, as he also wished Harbour the best of luck with a very Hellboy-ish “Good Luck, Kid.”
