Hellboy is back, and by the looks of this just-released poster, in style.
I loved the Guillermo del Toro films and like many was incredibly skeptical when David Harbour was cast as the titular character. After all, how could anyone do the role better than Ron Perlman? Well, the jury’s still out on that one, but consider my reservations dialed back significantly after getting a good look at this excellent poster showing off their take on Big Red.
The one-sheet gives us a full body glimpse at Harbour’s Hellboy in his fully demonic form. Ordinarily, the character keeps his horns shaved down to stumps in order to fit into society a little better (and because it looks like a pain in the ass to put on clothes with them sticking out of your head). Not to mention that he’s wary of the prophecies linking him to the apocalypse and is trying to play down his demonic nature.
But here, he almost seems to be embracing the hellfire, standing amidst the flames and wielding a white-hot sword. We don’t have confirmation of what this sword is yet, but my bet is that it’s Excalibur. After all, Hellboy’s wielded Excalibur in the comics and the film’s synopsis reads as follows:
The new story sees the hero squaring off against a medieval sorceress who seeks to destroy humankind.
Said sorceress is named Nimue (played by Milla Jovovich), another name for the Lady of the Lake who bestows the sword upon King Arthur. So, it being Excalibur sounds pretty convincing to me. I also wonder what other Arthurian elements Neil Marshall’s going to weave into the film’s mythology.
With Hellboy set to hit cinemas on April 12th, I suspect we’ll be seeing a teaser trailer pretty soon. In the meantime, this poster has definitely got me seriously excited and I can’t wait to lay eyes on more.
