David Harbour Wants Hellboy To Be Cut From The Same Cloth As Logan

There’s no getting around it: the back-to-back release of Deadpool and Logan had a profound, long-lasting effect on the R-rated comic book movie.

Case in point: Todd McFarlane’s long-in-development Spawn. It’s said to be cut from the same cinematic cloth as Logan, which is to say that McFarlane, a seasoned comic book scribe, is gunning for a weighty, adult-oriented adaptation of the titular demon. And it’s not the only gestating project to cite Wolverine’s last stand as an inspiration.

Over at Lionsgate, Neil Marshall and David Harbour (Stranger Things) are quietly toiling away on a rebooted Hellboy, one that will supposedly be much darker than the Guillermo del Toro films starring Ron Perlman. Slated for release in early 2019, Hellboy is currently lensing across parts of the United Kingdom and Bulgaria, and to get a read on the film’s progress, THR spoke to Harbour himself about how Marshall’s reboot stands on its own two feet.

They (the comics) seem much more macabre to me, they seem much more melancholy, they seem much more primal, more struggle, more angst. And I felt like those other two movies were funnier and brighter and kind of sillier in a way, which was great for what it was. But, I thought to approach this material in a different light and to do something completely different than what they had done.

And whereas Marvel Studios has found great success in palatable superhero movies that appeal to all members of the family, Harbour went on to cite Deadpool and Logan as examples of mature comic book movies done right.

This was something that I couldn’t pass up because I love those [Mike] Mignola comics. And the mythos we are in now, I feel like two strains are running. They are making these kind of popcorn-y, somewhat two-dimensional comic book movies and then there is this strain like Logan and Deadpool. That is what I am drawn to in the genre. I would love to do a Hellboy where you love him, but you’re also not quite sure about him.

Hellboy will be summoned into theaters on January 11th, 2019 – just one week shy of M. Night Shymalan’s trilogy-capper, Glass.