Original series Hellboy (2004) ,
David Harbour, and
Jack Kesy as Hellboy The film was directed and co-written by
Guillermo del Toro and stars
Ron Perlman as Hellboy (the favorite of both del Toro and Mignola for the role),
Selma Blair as
Liz Sherman,
Rupert Evans as
FBI Special Agent John Myers (a character created for the film),
John Hurt as Professor
Trevor Bruttenholm,
Doug Jones as
Abe Sapien (voiced by an uncredited
David Hyde Pierce),
Karel Roden as
Grigori Rasputin, and
Jeffrey Tambor as FBI Senior Special Agent
Tom Manning. The film depicts Hellboy as living at the
B.P.R.D. with a dozen cats and limited access to the outside world, and considered an
urban legend by the general populace.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) A sequel,
Hellboy II: The Golden Army, was shot in Budapest by
Guillermo del Toro and released in 2008, with Perlman and Blair returning. Jones also returned as Abe Sapien (undubbed this time), and also in two other roles, The Angel of Death and The Chamberlain.
Revolution Studios had planned on making the film (which
Columbia Pictures was to distribute), but the studio went out of business before filming.
Universal Studios then picked it up. The plot is a shift to more folklore rather than action, with heavy European overtones. The character of
Johann Kraus was added to the team, voiced by
Seth MacFarlane. The character
Roger the Homunculus was not, but he was written into the plot as a very prominent character in early drafts of the script. The character of Agent Myers from the first film does not return, his absence being explained by Liz remarking that Hellboy had him transferred to
Antarctica out of jealousy. Hellboy also reveals himself to the outside world in this film, and Liz is revealed to be pregnant with his twin children. On November 11, 2008, the film was released on DVD.
Reboot Hellboy (2019) In May 2017, Mignola announced
Millennium Media's plans for an
R-rated reboot, at the time titled
Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen, with
David Harbour as the titular character and
Neil Marshall directing from a script by
Andrew Cosby,
Christopher Golden and Mignola. The film draws inspiration from
Darkness Calls,
The Wild Hunt,
The Storm and the Fury, and
Hellboy in Mexico. The film, later retitled as
Hellboy, was released on April 12, 2019, to negative reviews. It grossed $55.1 million against a $50 million production budget, with several media outlets declaring it a
box office bomb. In 2022, Marshall decried the film, calling it the "worst professional experience" of his life due to creative control being taken from him by the producers and that the script was not salvageable, concluding that "there's nothing of me in that movie."
Second reboot Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) In February 2023, Millennium Media announced plans for another reboot titled
Hellboy: The Crooked Man, the first in a potential series of films.
Brian Taylor directed from a script by Mignola and Golden, based on
the 2008 comic of the same name, with
Jack Kesy as Hellboy. The film was released
direct-to-VOD in the United States on October 8, 2024.
Cancelled projects Hellboy III During prerelease promotion for
The Golden Army,
Guillermo del Toro indicated interest in a third movie: "I think we would all come back to do a third Hellboy [...] I certainly know where we're going with the movie on the third one." Over the years, del Toro would opine that the project was unlikely to happen, citing many difficulties including securing funding for the increased scope he envisioned. In 2017, the rights holders opted for a reboot and relaunch of
Hellboy on film rather than continuing with del Toro's involvement. by 2024 he had "let go of the fight" to make the film.
Hellboy: Silverlance In 2010,
Hellboy screenwriter
Peter Briggs was asked by Universal to script a spin-off centring on Prince Nuada, and provisionally agreed that Briggs could direct the film in New Zealand. Briggs began work on an outline with co-writer Aaron Mason. Titled
Hellboy: Silverlance, the script was a
B.P.R.D. story featuring Abe Sapien as the main character with Hellboy in a supporting role. Moving into the new B.P.R.D. headquarters in Colorado, Abe is troubled by his psychic connection with Princess Nuala, and begins researching the elves' history. The film would have shown Nuada's adventures throughout history, including his rivalry with a fairy courtier who orchestrates Nuada's exile in hopes of marrying Nuala and seizing control of the fairy kingdom; Nuada first meeting Mister Wink by saving him from a troupe of soldiers during the
Spanish Inquisition; and Nuada in
Nazi Germany, engineering a pact to keep various supernatural entities safe during
World War II (with Nuada and
Kroenen fighting in a "friendly" match for Project Ragnarok men). Doug Jones would have played both Abe and the Angel of Death, who strikes a bargain with Nuada.
Rupert Evans's Agent Myers would also have returned. The story climaxed at the new B.P.R.D. headquarters, with the return of
Rasputin's summoning gauntlet. Universal wanted to proceed with the project, but it emerged that del Toro's
Hellboy 3 was still a possibility, so
Silverlance was shelved. In 2015, Briggs received another call from Universal, saying that
Hellboy 3 had been cancelled and asking him and Mason to return for a reworked
Silverlance, with producer
Lawrence Gordon involved. The caveat was that Hellboy could not appear, but the writers managed to get the character a cameo appearance at the climax. If successful, the film would have launched a
From the Files of the B.P.R.D. spin-off series. In May 2017, Briggs affirmed that, with the announcement of the
Hellboy reboot, the
Silverlance project was dead. ==Television==