One of the biggest disappointments in recent years was Neil Marshall’s 2019 Hellboy reboot. As a big fan of Guillermo del Toro’s two Hellboy films, I was really looking forward to Marshall’s take on the franchise. But unfortunately, it didn’t work out, and it looked like the character would be taking a hiatus from the big screen for a while.
However, earlier this month, we heard rumblings that another reboot of the series was in the works, and a few days ago, the news was confirmed by Deadline. That’s right, four years after bombing at the box office with critics and with fans, the devilish superhero is coming back to the movies, and his new film is going to be called Hellboy: The Crooked Man.
Now, if you’re like me and you don’t know much about the Hellboy comics, you might think that title is some sort of Conjuring 2 rip-off, but don’t worry. It’s actually a reference to a three-issue miniseries from 2008, so this new reboot is going to be firmly based on the character’s comic book lore. Here’s what it’s going to be about, according to Deadline:
The new film will see Hellboy and a rookie BPRD agent stranded in 1950s rural Appalachia. There, they discover a small community haunted by witches, led by a local devil with a troubling connection to Hellboy’s past: the Crooked Man.
On top of all that, Deadline also revealed that production will be starting next month, and the film is going to be directed by Brian Taylor. But most interesting of all, the script was co-written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and his Dark Horse Comics partner Chris Golden, and that makes me really excited. These guys know the character inside and out, so they’ll almost certainly be giving us the most authentic version of Hellboy possible.
We don’t know when this movie is set to come out, but since it’s going into production next month, I’d expect it sometime at the end of this year or in 2024.