In 2019, Neil Marshall is hired to direct the reboot of “Hellboy”. Initially, the great Guillermo del Toro was to stage his “Hellboy 3”. Find out what the project would have looked like and what it became.
Hellboy : a diptych and a reboot
In 2004, the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro embarks on the staging of Hellboy. After Blade 2he tackles a new adaptation of comics, this time imagined by Mike Mignola in 1994. Hellboy, literally the boy from hell, is a demon that got stranded on earth and who since protects human beings against all paranormal and religious threats. Thus, in 2004, the director of Pan’s Labyrinth offers the first live action adaptation of this iconic character from American comics.
He then engages Ron Perlman, his favorite actorto step into the shoes of the hero. Hellboy met with some success with fans and professional critics but did a disappointing score at the box office. For a budget of $66 million, the film only brought in 99 million.



However, in 2008, Guillermo del Toro compiled and staged Hellboy 2: The Cursed Golden Legions. A sequel more appreciated by critics and spectators, which brings in a little more than its predecessor at the box office. For a budget of 85 million dollars, Hellboy 2 earns more than 168 million. It must be said that the word-of-mouth of the first opus ended up having its effect.
But while Guillermo del Toro wanted to stage a Hellboy 2, Lionsgate refuses to produce a new sequel and prefers to opt for a reboot. Neil Marshall (The Descent) then stage Hellboy in 2019. David Harbor succeeds Ron Perlman in the lead role. Unfortunately, this new Hellboy takes a monumental outcry, hated by the press as by the fans, and fails in the great widths at the box office with only $55 million in revenue for a budget of $50 million.
Why hell boy 3 never saw the light of day?
Initially, Guillermo del Toro wanted to conclude his story by creating a trilogy. Unfortunately, things did not materialize. The project got delayed when Guillermo del Toro is committed to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Indeed, before Peter Jackson returned to Middle-earth, it was Guillermo del Toro who was to stage theThe Adventures of Bilbo Baggins. In 2010, when he gave up The HobbitGuillermo del Toro states that the project hell boy 3 is still relevant.



But it is above all the mixed financial results of the first two parts that cool the studios concerning this new part of the saga.. The director then chained the refusals. There is however a glimmer of hope in 2013when Guillermo del Toro staged Pacific Rim for Legendary Pictures. At the time, the studio gave carte blanche to the filmmaker and the latter hoped to work in the same way to produce hell boy 3. Legendary accepts the deal if ever Pacific Rim: Uprising is a success. However, Guillermo del Toro refuses to direct this sequel… This one, directed by Steven S. DeKnight, is a failure, and bad news that buries the project hell boy 3…
What would Guillermo del Toro have in store for us?
The director has always repeated it, hell boy 3 would have been the last part of the saga. In the manner of The Dark Knight or of Spiderman, Guillermo Del Toro also wanted his own superheroic trilogy. With this third film, the filmmaker wanted to offer an apotheosis. And for that, he required a budget of $120 million (i.e. twice as much as on the first film). Furthermore, del Toro would have liked to offer his fans a bolder and above all darker film than the first two.



Indeed, he wanted to tell how Hellboy accepts his fate to become the Beast of Apocalypse. The script would then have played on the irony of the character becoming humanity’s worst enemy to stop the film’s real villain. An idea that was taken up by Neil Marshall in the reboot. Guillermo Del Toro even tried to take his story into comics, but the great Mike Mignola refused, arguing that directors should just make movies. hell boy 3 is now part of these exciting films that we will never see…