No one ever sets out to make a bad movie, but not every blockbuster is destined for success. When it was first announced that Lionsgate was developing a Hellboy reboot starring David Harbour (Stranger Things), fans who had been holding out hope for a third Guillermo del Toro movie weren’t exactly enthused. The Hellboy reboot was a critical and commercial failure, and David Harbour told GQ that he reached out to Ryan Reynolds to ask for advice on how to survive a box-office bomb.
David Harbour was in the midst of the massive success of Stranger Things when he signed on to play Hellboy in the reboot movie. Very quickly, Harbour realized that the project would be facing an uphill battle.
It was a very difficult experience because I wanted a lot out of it. I really like [Mike Mignola, Hellboy creator], I like that character. And then immediately when it began, even when it was announced, I realised that people did not want that character reinvented. I was very naive and optimistic about what we were going to do.
As we know, critics weren’t kind to the Hellboy reboot, so David Harbour called up Ryan Reynolds, who had his own unpleasant comic-book movie experience with Green Lantern. “I know him a little bit,” Harbour explained to GQ. “I called him and I was like, Hey man, I just need to know something. You know Green Lantern? Huge flop for you. What the fuck is that like, because I think I’m going to hit that right now. Am I gonna be okay? Am I gonna survive this?” Harbour didn’t mention what Reynolds said, only to say that he was “sweet” about it.
David Harbour can currently be seen in the fourth season of Stranger Things now streaming on Netflix. Did Hellboy (or Green Lantern for that matter) deserve the thrashing it received?