David Harbour reached out to Ryan Reynolds for advice when Hellboy bombed

David Harbour, Hellboy, Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds

No one ever sets out to make a bad movie, but not every blockbuster is destined for success. When it was first announced that Lionsgate was developing a Hellboy reboot starring David Harbour (Stranger Things), fans who had been holding out hope for a third Guillermo del Toro movie weren’t exactly enthused. The Hellboy reboot was a critical and commercial failure, and David Harbour told GQ that he reached out to Ryan Reynolds to ask for advice on how to survive a box-office bomb.

David Harbour was in the midst of the massive success of Stranger Things when he signed on to play Hellboy in the reboot movie. Very quickly, Harbour realized that the project would be facing an uphill battle.

It was a very difficult experience because I wanted a lot out of it. I really like [Mike Mignola, Hellboy creator], I like that character. And then immediately when it began, even when it was announced, I realised that people did not want that character reinvented. I was very naive and optimistic about what we were going to do.

As we know, critics weren’t kind to the Hellboy reboot, so David Harbour called up Ryan Reynolds, who had his own unpleasant comic-book movie experience with Green Lantern. “I know him a little bit,” Harbour explained to GQ. “I called him and I was like, Hey man, I just need to know something. You know Green Lantern? Huge flop for you. What the fuck is that like, because I think I’m going to hit that right now. Am I gonna be okay? Am I gonna survive this?” Harbour didn’t mention what Reynolds said, only to say that he was “sweet” about it.

David Harbour can currently be seen in the fourth season of Stranger Things now streaming on Netflix. Did Hellboy (or Green Lantern for that matter) deserve the thrashing it received?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66JvTywG_os

Source: GQ

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Based in Canada, Kevin Fraser has been a news editor with JoBlo since 2015. When not writing for the site, you can find him indulging in his passion for baking and adding to his increasingly large collection of movies that he can never find the time to watch.