Hellboy reboot director says R-rating will allow him to “take the cuffs off”

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

There were always rumblings of a third HELLBOY movie which would close off the trilogy, but sadly, it was not to be. After keeping that faint flicker of hope alive for years, HELLBOY director Guillermo del Toro recently organized a sit-down with Ron Perlman and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola to discuss what could be done to make the project a reality, but sadly, it just wound up driving the final nail into the coffin of HELLBOY 3. Although Ron Perlman's time as the character came to an end that day, Hellboy himself emerged from the ashes when it was announced that the franchise would be getting a reboot courtesy of Neil Marshall (THE DESCENT) with David Harbour (Stranger Things) playing the title character.

Under the working title of HELLBOY: RISE OF THE BLOOD QUEEN, the upcoming reboot is being planned as a "darker, more gruesome version of Hellboy" which will be R-rated. While speaking on Post Mortem with Mick Garris, Neil Marshall said that the R-rating will allow him to take the cuffs off and fully embrace Hellboy's bloody nature.

We’ve been granted permission to do it R-rated, which for me is just like taking the cuffs off. It’s like, okay, so now we can just make the movie we want to make. It’s not like I’m going to force it to be R-rated, but if it happens to come out that way, just because of my own sensibilities, then fine. And nobody’s going to stop us. So, that’s the main thing. And I’m sure, obviously, the success of things like Deadpool and Logan have not hurt that cause. But, also, when you go back the original material, it is kind of bloody, so I’m going to embrace that.

When asked whether he would embrace practical effects as much as Guillermo del Toro did for his HELLBOY movies, Neil Marshall said that the reboot is "definitely going to be as practical as we can possibly make it … I love to do stuff in camera whenever I possibly can, and use CG as the amazing tool that it is, to enhance or expand upon the world, but not to use it to replace reality, when you can do it [for] real." Marshall also said that he wants to give the remake a "stamp of its own" and set it apart from del Toro's movies, adding that he's been "working very closely with Mike Mignola to keep it close to the origins of the characters, but also the world and that kind of thing."

HELLBOY: RISE OF THE BLOOD QUEEN is expected to be released sometime in 2018.