Ranking 2019 superhero movies by interest

HOLLYWOOD, CA – AUGUST 17: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been converted to black and white) David Harbour attends Netflix’s “Stranger Things” celebrates 12 Emmy nominations at Hollywood Forever on August 17, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

7. Hellboy (January 11, 2019)

This third cinematic entry featuring Mike Mignola’s devilish monster hunter has some turbulent history. The film was originally intended as a sequel to Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) under the title of Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen.  However, Academy Award-winner Guillermo del Toro wouldn’t direct it as he did the last two entries. Instead, he wanted to produce the film, but only if he could also write the script.

As Hellboy creator Mike Mignola already penned one approved by Lionsgate, that was out of the question. Since Ron Perlman only agreed to replay Hellboy if del Toro was also on board, that meant he was out too.

Thus facing the possibility there’d be no Hellboy 3, Lionsgate decided the new film would be a reboot, with Stranger Things‘ David Harbour as the titular hero and Neil Marshall (The Descent, Game of Thrones) directing. As Mignola is one the co-scriptwriters, it’s supposedly a more faithful adaptation of his comic book creation. On top of this, instead of being rated PG-13, the Hellboy reboot would also be Rated-R. After all, reboots and R-rated comic book movies are all the rage these days, right?

While there hasn’t been a trailer released yet, there are promotional photos of Harbour as Hellboy, and I must say it’s a really good make-up job. Also, as a character actor, Harbour will no doubt do an excellent job, as anyone who’s seen Stranger Things can attest to. Even so, you can tell that expectations for Hellboy aren’t very high, at least from the studio. After all, it will be over ten years since the last Hellboy movie, and, with a January release date, that’s not exactly a month for blockbusters.