At the moment, things aren’t looking too promising for Neil Marshall’s reboot of Hellboy. After a wildly disappointing first trailer, coupled with the fact that the film has to follow on from Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman’s beloved take on the character, box office projections are forecasting an underwhelming theatrical run for the movie. Whether you’re on board with the project or not though, it seems that the producers are still holding out hope that things will turn out alright in the end.
Speaking with Collider during a set visit, producer Lloyd Levin noted that the team is already planning for sequels in a “very very vague sense.” He was quick to note though that nothing is set in stone just yet and it isn’t a “this is happening in Hellboy 2-type scenario.” Instead, they just have a kind of roadmap of where sequels would go based on the comic book source material.
“Not in a No. 2 will be this and No. 3 will be that,” Levin teases. “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.”
What the producer’s saying here certainly makes sense, but the question remains of whether or not Hellboy will perform well enough to earn another outing. After all, it’s facing the daunting task of opening under the shadow of Avengers: Endgame, so it’s hard to imagine it being able to carve out an audience of its own when it hits theaters next month. Especially since the buzz surrounding it right now isn’t too positive.
That being said, we’re still hoping that Hellboy at least does aright, since if it flops, then that’s probably it for the character on the big screen for the foreseeable future. Both del Toro films underperformed and if this one underwhelms, too, it’s unlikely that anyone will be running to fund any sequels or future projects for Big Red.