It would be quite difficult to name a comic hero who does not belong to either the mainstream Marvel or DC heroes. After a while, having looked upon the comic books adaptations on the big screens in the past few years, we would happen upon Judge Dredd, Constantine and of course Hellboy. Sadly none of these franchises did have that much success compared to the 'big brothers': Constantine (2005), featuring Keanu Reeves, was shut down after one movie, and although Judge Dredd was greatly portrayed by Karl Urban in the 2012 movie, it did not have the financial results to earn the rights to a sequel.
Hellboy, who was played by Ron Perlman, has had already two films, Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). Guillermo del Toro, the director of these movies originally planned a trilogy for the demon without a fang. Hellboy was by far the most successful, critically and financially speaking, non-Marvel, non-DC hero movie of the recent adaptations, but it seems that studios nowadays want to play it safe, and only invest in projects that will surely make big money. In the case of Hellboy, there are a couple of ifs that scare away the needed investments from the studio, Universal.
The fact is, Guillermo del Toro also wants to finish the trilogy of Hellboy, but he wants to do it the right way.
And for this to happen, he would need money: about $150 million to start with, that Universal has been hesitant to give to Mr. del Toro. Unfortunately, Mr. del Toro cannot guarantee a satisfiable ending to the storyline without this kind of money, and hence there's been no confirmation of a movie in the making.
Now Ron Perlman, the actor who plays the main lead, Hellboy, is following the steps of Ryan Reynolds, whose movie Deadpool is being now made only after years of campaigning by Mr.
Reynolds on social media. Mr. Perlman has started his own campaign on his Twitter to show the studios that there is a big enough of a fan base for Hellboy 3 to happen. As Mr. Perlman wrote on his Twitter: "Anybody out there wanna see #HellboyIII as much as I do? Let's get this m***a trending, y'all! Let's end the trilogy; we earned it!".
So far Mr. Perlman has received more than 18,000 retweets, and although the actor himself admitted, he did not know how this trend will end, the example of Deadpool is really encouraging for them. And to be fair, Hellboy is indeed such an interesting, exciting and unique franchise that would deserve to have its storyline finished, however dark and apocaliptic that turns out to be. We are definitely hoping for the good news, especially since directors and studios once again dare to venture into the territory of fantasy genre, such as the upcoming 'Black Angel' or the rumoured Yoda-centered third spinoff of the Star Wars franchise.
