HELLBOY Sequels Being Planned, and Apparently Rebooting the Franchise Was Guillermo Del Toro’s Idea
It seems like Lionsgate is feeling confident in their upcoming Hellboy reboot because they are reportedly already planning some sequels. While talking to Collider, producer Lloyd Levin says the team is planning for sequel in what he calls a “vague sense.”
Levin goes on to explain that the track has been laid in the comic books of where a sequel would go saying:
“Not in a No. 2 will be this and No. 3 will be that. But you can tell yourself. If this starts with The Wild Hunt, the track is laid from there in the comic books where you could go.”
This first Hellboy reboot was inspired by the Hellboy comic arcs of Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, and two sets of interconnecting mini-series in The Storm and The Fury. If the film series follows the comic arcs, it would most likely lead to the Hellboy in Hell story arc which deals with the death of Hellboy.
Obviously, these sequels hinge on the first movie being a success.
It was also reveled by Levin in the interview that it was Guillermo Del Toro’s idea to reboot the franchise. When Del Toro departed the third movie, Lionsgate was able to snatch up the rights. The producer explains:
“For years, the second one came out in [2008], and during that time the idea of a third would’ve been very very exciting. It was up to Guillermo and he ultimately decided that this was behind him. He was onto other things. So we were able to get a hold of the rights."
"A third without Guillermo was unthinkable and without Ron was unthinkable so you have over 20 years worth of stories and dozens of characters and it just felt like there was so much more of the Hellboy, Mignola-verse to explore. So we talked about it and faced with no opportunity to do a third, the only opportunity was to reboot.”
Now, Del Toro has said in the past that the reason he never made Hellboy III is because he couldn’t get the big budget that he wanted for the film. That’s what caused him to walk away. I guess in the process he was probably like, “yeah, sure... just reboot it.”
Are you looking forward to this new Hellboy movie? Do you think that it will be enough of a box office success to get a sequel?