Ed Skrein joins Neil Marshall’s Hellboy as Major Ben Daimio

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Ed Skrein has taken over the TRANSPORTER franchise from Jason Statham, made the mistake of messing with DEADPOOL, and landed a role as a villainous cyborg in the Robert Rodriguez/James Cameron film ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. Next up, Skrein will be sharing the screen with HELLBOY.

In a bit of casting that's already drawing a bit of heat from fans due to the fact that the character is Japanese-American in the comic book source material, Skrein has signed on to play Major Ben Daimio in director Neil Marshall's reboot of the HELLBOY cinematic franchise.

Daimio is "a rugged military member of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense who, due to a supernatural encounter, can turn into a jaguar when angered or in pain." He's a member of BPRD who wasn't in Guillermo del Toro's HELLBOY or HELLBOY II, so whether you agree with the casting of Skrein or not, it is nice that this version of HELLBOY is doing something a bit different from what came before. Another example of that is the fact that the title character's love interest in the film will be Alice Monaghan instead of Liz Sherman.

David Harbour will be playing Hellboy in the reboot, with Ian McShane as his mentor Professor Broom, Sasha Lane as Alice Monaghan, and Milla Jovovich as the villain, the Blood Queen. Based on the comic book series created by Mike Mignola, HELLBOY will find our hero taking on 

a medieval sorceress out to destroy humankind.

The screenplay has been written by Mignola, Aron Coleite, Andrew Cosby, and Christopher Golden.

Production on HELLBOY begins next month, with filming to take place in the UK and Bulgaria.