I'm of the opinion that most everything is made better by the addition of Ian McShane, and the upcoming HELLBOY reboot has just moved up several notches in my eyes as THR reports that the American Gods actor has joined the cast of HELLBOY: RISE OF THE BLOOD QUEEN. McShane will be playing the role of Professor Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm. Hell yeah.
Previously played by the late John Hurt in HELLBOY and HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, Professor Broom is the founder of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense as well as a father figure to Hellboy. David Harbour (Stranger Things) will be stepping into the role of Hellboy for the upcoming reboot, which will be directed by Neil Marshall (THE DESCENT). According to THR, the reboot will find Hellboy "squaring off against a medieval sorceress who seeks to destroy humankind." Production will take place in both the U.K. and Bulgaria and is looking at getting underway this September.
I've got a lot of love in my heart for Guillermo del Toro's HELLBOY movies, but with the chances of another del Toro sequel now laid to rest, I suppose I better get used to witnessing a new take on the HELLBOY story. Neil Marshall has said that he wants to give his remake a "stamp of its own" in order to 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 also being planned as a "darker, more gruesome version of Hellboy" which will be R-rated, which Marshall has said 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.