Well the optimism was fun while it lasted. A few weeks ago,Guillermo del Torotook to Twitter to gauge interest inHellboy 3, the third film in his comic book franchise that began with his 2004 film and continued with the fantastical and hauntingHellboy II: The Golden Armyin 2008. After reaching 100,000 votes on Twitter, del Toro agreed to arrange a sit-down with starRon Perlmanand comic creatorMike Mingolato discuss a potentialHellboy 3. Well it appears that meeting happened, and the outcome is not exactly what fans expected.
Earlier today, del Toro posted the following on Twitter:
It’s unclear why, exactly,Hellboy 3is now officially dead, but the project was always a longshot. For one,HellboyandHellboy IIwere both distributed by different studios (Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures, respectively), so that was an obstacle. And secondly, neither film made aninsaneamount of money that would make a thirdHellboymovie an easy greenlight for a studio.Hellboygrossed a respectable $99.3 million worldwide while the sequel, which cost more to make, grossed $160.4 million. In the past, del Toro has made no secret about the fact thatHellboy 3would be the most expensive of the bunch, so that made the trilogy-capper that much more difficult to get made.
But it sounds like this “cancellation” ofHellboy 3happened at the creative stage, so it’s possible Mingola and/or Perlman felt the property was better left alone. Or maybe they made overtures at the studio level and got the big ol’ “No.” Whatever the case, this is a bummer for fans who wanted to see the adventures of Hellboy continueandto see del Toro dive back into that colorful world. But it’s also nice to know for sure, 100%, that we can stop holding our breath.
Up next for del Toro is the smaller budgeted Fox Searchlight filmThe Shape of Water, which he wrote and directed. The film finds del Toro regularDoug Jonesplaying a fish-manin a secret lab during the Cold War, withSally HawkinsandMichael Shannonfilling the lead roles. That movie comes out later this year, but it’s unclear what del Toro’s next project after the might be. He’s staying plenty busy, as always, as he also just launched the animated Netflix seriesTrollhuntersto significant acclaim.
