As far as I’m concerned, Guillermo del Toro gave us as perfect an adaptation as you can get of underground comic “Hellboy” with 2008’s "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." He fought for Ron Perlman to be cast, he fought for the budget and he fought for creative control. There was just no way we could have a better Hellboy without Del Toro at the reign.
Perlman and, his "Hellboy" co-star, Selma Blair seem to be in agreement with my assessment; the pair even took to social media to indirectly criticize the reboot. Blair reacted by posting a photo of herself kissing a poster of Perlman’s Hellboy. “This man, Ron Perlman,” Blair wrote on Instagram. “Forever my Red. You are always the realest deal, a diamond.” Perlman, meanwhile, posted a reminder on his Instagram that the del Toro original can be streamed on Netflix right now.
Perlman and del Toro not being part of this reboot has been a source of controversy for many fans. This “Hellboy” reboot has “Stranger Things” actor David Harbour playing the titular character. Director Neil Marshall, who made the excellent horror film “The Descent,” is replacing del Toro.
The Wrap is even now reporting of production hell during the shoot of the film. That Harbour, and director Marshall consistently fought on-set. The report goes even further in insinuating that the studio undermined the filmmaker at every turn.
It all, supposedly, started when producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin fired Marshall’s longtime collaborating cinematographer, Sam McCurdy. This firing was supposedly a warning shot at Marshall to let him know who was in charge … Then they gave permission to Ian McShane and Harbour to re-write their own scenes on set, ignoring Marshall.
“Hellboy” currently sits at 14% on RottenTomatoes and opens in theaters on Friday.