David Harbour will start shooting ‘Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen’ this September.
The 42-year-old ‘Stranger Things’ actor is to take on the titular role in the reboot of the comic book movies – which saw the demonic anti-hero portrayed brilliantly by Ron Perlman in ‘Hellboy’ and ‘Hellboy 2: The Golden Army’ – and he is absolutely thrilled to have been cast because he is such a huge fan of the Dark Horse Comics character and he can’t wait to get started on the movie this fall.
Speaking to The Wrap, Harbour said: "We’re supposed to go in September, I hope. It’s good. It’s a whole new thing. I’d always been a fan of the comics and there’s a darker tone to it and I think in the climate we have now there’s kind of a darker … a desire for more of that … the script is good and this guy Neil Marshall is directing who’s really good and the aesthetic is great. So often, the superhero movies can be really fun and I want this to be really fun, but I also want it to be more of a character piece and more about this dude’s struggle. I think it could be interesting. I don’t know, I just hope we make a good movie. We’ll see. You be the judge!"
Harbour is intrigued to explore the complexities of the character, who has a fascinating back story which sees him summoned as a baby demon from Hell by Nazi occultists.
Harbour added: "It’s a character that I love, and sort of in the way, I think creator Mike Mignola and a bunch of other people saw me in ‘Stranger Things’ and wanted me to play Hellboy and I think he has some parallels to him. I think he’s another complicated anti-hero who is not strictly good or bad, he’s just trying to do the right thing. I think he’s a demon, he’s crazy, and he’s also sweet and vulnerable and neurotic so there’s a lot of complexity there."
Millennium, the movie studio behind the project, is also in talks with producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin for the reboot, which would see them collaborate with Mike Richardson of Dark Horse Entertainment on ‘Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen’.
The upcoming project has been in the pipeline for some time, but the reboot is set to happen without original director Guillermo del Toro, who couldn’t agree with the studio’s vision for the movie.
Instead, Marshall – who worked on the likes of ‘The Descent’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ – is attached to helm the movie and is said to be working on developing a new script with Aron Coleite, who worked on NBC’s ‘Heroes’ and the upcoming ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ series.
In January, del Toro took to Twitter to tease the possibility of a third movie, saying that if the idea received sufficient support, he would hold discussions with the studio about the franchise.
David Harbour says Hellboy film will shoot in September
