The Director
Guillermo del Toro is arguably one of the best big budget filmmakers working in Hollywood today. His vision is unique, informed by a heady blend of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy tropes, with a strong magical realist sensibility and a love for creating creatures that are not only visually impressive but also thematically complex. There are few Manichean binaries in his films: evil depends largely on your perspective, and many of his villains are as complex and worthy of sympathy as his heroes.
Beginning with efforts like the vampire tale Cronos and the award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth to more recent hits like Pacific Rim and the upcoming Victorian ghost story Crimson Peak, del Toro has created a multitude of worlds with complexities that few filmmakers today even consider. What’s more, he’s married those complex themes with some pretty strong box office numbers.
Hellboy and its sequel fit perfectly into del Toro’s multi-faceted oeuvre and a rounding out of the trilogy would give the director a chance to re-enter that world that he has taken so much time in adapting and building.