You can start pumping your Right Hands of Doom in the air, Hellboy fans, because Lionsgate has unveiled our official first look at David Harbour in the upcoming Hellboy reboot and it looks devilishly good. Announced earlier this year, the R-rated Hellboy reboot is not connected to the previous Guillermo del Toro-directed films, and has replaced series star Ron Perlman with Stranger Things breakout star David Harbour in the eponymous role. But, if you’re a diehard Hellboy fan, you likely knew that already, so go ahead and feast your eyes on Big Red 2.0.
Holy crap #Hellboy #FirstLook pic.twitter.com/dpryXiHDHE
— Hellboy (@HellboyMovie) September 13, 2017
If your first impulse–like mine–was, “Holy smokes that looks a lot like Ron Perlman,” then you’re not wrong. However, that is largely because Guillermo del Toro, Ron Perlman, and the incredibly talented makeup artists working on the previous Hellboy films so effectively nailed the character. This version of Hellboy seems to have larger horns (or the stumps where his horns used to be, longer hair, and has done more Crossfit than his predecessor.
https://twitter.com/DavidKHarbour/status/908070476475494400
For those not in the know, Hellboy was created in 1993 by writer-artist Mike Mignola. Hellboy, also known as Anung Un Rama, is a demon who was summoned to Earth by Nazi occultists looking to swing the tide of World War II in their favor. Rescued by Professor Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm and the United States military, he was dubbed “Hellboy” and raised in secret on a New Mexico airbase from which the shadowy Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) operated. As he grew older, Hellboy was trained as an agent of the BPRD assisting a wide array of human and nonhuman agents in their efforts to protect the Earth from all manner of supernatural forces.
Directed by Neil Marshall, this new version of Hellboy is assembling an all-star cast including Milla Jovovich as the film’s villain (possibly the Blood Queen) and Ian McShane as Hellboy’s adoptive father Professor Broom. The film has not been without its fair share of controversy, though. The Hellboy reboot found itself at the center of a whitewashing scandal when it was announced that Ed Skrein (Deadpool) would be taking on the role of a canonically Japanese-American character. In response to the outrage, Skrein voluntarily stepped down from the project and now it appears Lost alum Daniel Dae Kim is in talks to take over the role. While the film is still a ways away from hitting theaters, it already looks like it’s shaping up to be a faithful adaptation of the fan-favorite comics.
We’ll continue to update you more on the Hellboy reboot as news develops. In the meantime, here’s a sprawling compendium of everything we know so far about the new Hellboy movie.
Hellboy opens on January 11, 2019.
What do you think of this first look at David Harbour as Hellboy? Let us know in the comments below.
Image:Â Lionsgate
What else is happening in Hellboy news?
- Behold this mindblowing Angel of Death Hellboy cosplay
- Injustice 2 will finally let you figure out if Hellboy could kick Batman’s ass
- A brief history of the Hellboy reboot’s mysterious villain
