Ian McShane says Hellboy & Professor Broom will have a "crusty" relationship

Ian McShane says Hellboy & Professor Broom will have a “crusty” relationship

January 19th 2018, 11:52am

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and Professor Broom (John Hurt) had a pretty solid, father-son dynamic in the first HELLBOY movie, but the reboot starring David Harbour and Ian McShane is going down a different route. According to McShane, the relationship between the two characters is much more strained, hinting there's a sort of “psychological battle” going on.

While speaking to Fandom, McShane opened up about how the relationship between the big, red half-demon and Professor Broom has a rockier foundation, as Hellboy continues to wonder why Broom bothered to take him in.

You don’t start with the birth of Hellboy… but the relationship between [Hellboy and Broom] is quite crusty. Does he trust his father? [Hellboy asks], ‘Why didn’t you kill me? I’m a monster.’ It’s a little bit of a psychological battle against Hellboy…There’s one important moment in [the film] when [Hellboy] sort of thinks he’s fighting his own people, the outsiders. So, he’s being used by the insiders, which is me, if you like.

Though his character dies over the course of the first HELLBOY in 2004, John Hurt made a lasting impression on fans with his work as Broom. McShane continued and said he will pay a bit of a homage to the late Hurt (who passed in 2017), but will still put his own stamp on the role.

I’m sort of playing this part as a slight homage to John [Hurt]. I mean, I’m not playing it like him, obviously… but the relationship [with Hellboy] is very much the same.

Hellboy is a complicated character and seeing that illustrated in his dynamic with Broom will be a unique way of differentiating itself from the Guillermo del Toro films. The way McShane describes their relationship reminds me of how Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Charles (Patrick Stewart) behaved towards each other in LOGAN last year. There's a mixture of animosity and love between the two, which made for compelling drama, and it's something this new HELLBOY movie can take a page from.

The new HELLBOY movie is set for January 11, 2019.