I’m an unabashed Guillermo del Toro whore, and BLADE 2 and HELLBOY were detrimental in starting that crazy love affair. Those films were the gateway drugs that led me to the heroin that is THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE and PAN’S LABYRINTH. As enjoyable as HELLBOY and HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY are on their own, they were very obviously building up to something big. The films themselves didn’t break any records (grossing $99 and $160 million respectively), so getting a HELLBOY 3 is an uphill battle. That’s not stopping Ron Perlman from trying to make it happen, as he said in a recent red carpet interview.
In regards to whether or not he would like to see the Hellboy series continue:
I’d like to not keep it going. I’d like to finish it, though. I’d like for there be a third film because the first two films set up for a huge resolve, and he (Guillermo del Toro) already understands what that resolve will kinda look like. He gave me a rather broad stroke sketch of what the third film would look like, and it’s so epic. It’s so deserved by the fans who hung in there for the first two, that I really feel as though it’s essential that we make it. So, I fight for it every day. Sometimes I’m the only voice, and sometimes there are others, but I’m never gonna stop trying to get Hellboy 3 made.
If any of you own HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY on Blu-ray/DVD, check out the making of that flick. There are not many big-budget films that are passion projects, but everyone involved with that movie busted their ass to get it done. The film has half the budget that films of those size usually have, and del Toro and crew did a bang-up job of making every frame look gorgeous. I sincerely hope that Perlman isn’t the only one fighting to get this film done, as I feel del Toro would deliver something truly special to close out the trilogy.