The future of the Hellboy franchise after The Crooked Man

Hellboy: The Crooked Man has arrived in theaters in the United Kingdom, with a VOD release in the United States planned as well. The movie has been seen by people in early screenings, with the overall reactions being mixed with both positive and negative reviews. Since then, however, the reviews have leaned in the negative direction.

With the movie out there in the world now, the question remains: What's next for Hellboy and the world of Hellboy at large?

Will the Crooked Man cast return for another installment?

Having the original cast from the Hellboy: The Crooked Man cast continue after the film is hard to discern of the writing of this article since the film hasn't been widely released yet. Let's hypothetically say that the film is out, most people have seen it, would the core cast return for future sequels and/or spin offs? This depends on what happens during the course of the film.

Starting off with Jefferson White's character of Tom Ferrell, who in the comics does make a return after the Crooked Man comic he first appeared in, in the sequel to the original comic titled The Return of Effie Kolb. Ferrell was an old man in that story, which leaves the possibility of White's return to the role up in the air, because if there's ever an adaption of the sequel comic, it would be up to the creative team if they want to get White back and have him don old man make up or get an older actor.

The fate of Bobbie Jo Song, played by Adeline Rudolph, is even harder to figure out mainly due to the fact that Song is an original character from The Crooked Man film, who didn't exist in the original comic. We'll not spoil her fate here, but it's this writer's opinion that the creators wouldn't create a new character for the Hellboy mythos just to kill her off in her first film. If she does manage to survive, what could her role be like in the future?

The story of the film and the comic take place in the late 1950s, and Rudolph was in her late 20s when filming The Crooked Man, so for the sake of argument let's say she's the same age as the character of Bobbie, she could be a recurring character within the Hellboy universe. The thing with the Hellboy comics is that Hellboy himself ages much more slowly than humans, and that's the case with Bobbie Jo Song, who in later installments could be portrayed as an aged agent of the BPRD who frequently aids Hellboy and other agents on various cases. That's just one theory, and who knows if she'll survive her film debut, we'll just have to wait and see.

And now for Big Red himself, Hellboy, played by Jack Kesy. Hellboy of course is the main fixture of the original comics, but would Jack Kesy want to return to the role in future installments? That's again up to the creators if they want him back after his film's release, for they might want to go in a different direction with the character. And even if they do want Kesy back, who knows if Kesy himself would want to. We've now had three live-action Hellboy actors and the question is: Will there be a fourth one in the future, or can Kesy tie Ron Perlman's record of appearing in two movies?

Hellboy anthology movies (or a TV series), perhaps

The original Crooked Man comic was a three issue limited series that had no direct ties to the overarching stories and plotlines dealing with Hellboy's destiny as the destroyer of the world. There have been many stories that take place before the character discovered his destiny, which have been collected in various short stories volumes concerning Hellboy. This writer believes that most of the best Hellboy stories can be found in these short story collections, one of which contains the original Crooked Man storyline and many other widely regarded tales.

So, if the Crooked Man film does well, what could future films or series can be made from the Hellboy mythos? The short stories could be used to develop other films based around them like the Crooked Man, or due to the anthology nature of each short story being disconnected from each other, there could be potential for an anthology television series dealing with these stories.

One of this writer's favorite Hellboy stories is the Hellboy in Mexico storyline. While it was previously stated that each of the short stories aren't connected to each other, these stories are the exception. The story follows Hellboy's early years as a B.P.R.D. agent (the events of this storyline take place before the Crooked Man, which in that story took place in the late 50s) and how he joined a group of luchadores brother's who also hunt creatures and monsters when they're not in the ring. This story is followed by more stories where Hellboy became lost in Mexico for a few months, and the stories deal with what happened during those missing months. This story would be ideal for a television anthology, dealing with Hellboy's inexperience when dealing with monsters and the consequences of failing to defeat them. There are so many other stories that would make great stand alone movies or serialized television, the sky's the limit.

BPRD led movies/shows

Hellboy is of course the main star of his extended comics universe, but there are a plethora of other characters and storylines that are so great that they don't directly involve Hellboy, or in other cases, at all.

In the comics, Hellboy leaves the B.P.R.D. after the Conqueror Worm storyline, feeling fed up with his destiny of destroying the world, he tried to simply get away from it all. While there were comics that dealt with Hellboy's adventures after leaving the B.P.R.D., there were comics that focused on the rest of the usual Hellboy cast, such as Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman, while at the same time introducing new characters to the fold. These comics were titled B.P.R.D., and these stories directly dealt with the aftermath of Hellboy leaving, but not long into the series he isn't mentioned that much or having to do with the plot directly.

There are many stories within this comic run that would be great for movies or television, such as the last big storylines of the series titled Hell on Earth and The Devil You Know, which dealt with the end of the world. These last two stories tie into Hellboy's adventures away from the Bureau, so it would be cool if the potential developers built up to this big crossover between the Hellboy movies and/or shows and the B.P.R.D. movies and/or shows. These ideas would bring more obscure Hellboy characters into the public consciousness, as well as dealing with stories that have yet to be adapted on the big or small screen.

More video games please

Hellboy has had a tricky history with video games, mostly boiling down to them not being very good games on a story and technical level. While there have been some good ones, such as the recent Hellboy: Web of Wryd, mostly the games haven't been good. It's past time to have consistently good, if not great Hellboy games, and there are plenty of stories to choose to adapt for a game.

Again, Conqueror Worm would be a great story to adapt, especially for a video game, because many characters from the Hellboy mythos, both allies and villains, appear in this storyline. With the amount of characters. this writer could envision a co-op style game where multiple players get to choose which character they want to play as, each character having their own strengths and weaknesses, combat style or way of solving puzzles, etc. For example, Hellboy would be great for smashing through enemies and obstacles in his path, but someone like Abe Sapien is more athletic and can swim underwater to solve the puzzles that only he could reach that Hellboy can't.

This story provides a lot for games, and there are many more stories that could be adapted into games, or the creators can make an original story for their game, just like Web of Wryd.

There are probably other mediums that this writer hasn't mentioned that Hellboy would make a great fit, but there's so much to explore within the Hellboy universe that's just waiting to be brought to life for our enjoyment.

What do you think? What other mediums would Hellboy be perfect for? Is there a particular story that you think would be great for a movie, game, etc?