Hellboy (franchise)
The Hellboy media franchise consists of four live-action theatrical films, a live-action television pilot, two animated television feature films and short films, and various games and novels, based on the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name, created by Mike Mignola. The franchise has grossed a total of $325.2 million, on a combined budget of $212.5–$221 million.
Comics
The character of Hellboy was originally created by Mike Mignola as a comic book character in 1993, and has featured in numerous comic books, miniseries, one-shots, backup features, crossovers, and guest appearances. The first film adaptation was made in 2004.Films
Live-action films
''Hellboy'' (2004)
The film was directed and co-written by Guillermo del Toro and stars Ron Perlman as Hellboy, Selma Blair as Liz Sherman, Rupert Evans as FBI Special Agent John Myers, John Hurt as Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, Doug Jones as Abe Sapien, Karel Roden as Grigori Rasputin, and Jeffrey Tambor as FBI Senior Special Agent Tom Manning. The film depicts Hellboy as living at the B.P.R.D. with a dozen cats and limited access to the outside world, and considered an urban legend by the general populace.''Hellboy II: The Golden Army'' (2008)
A sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, was shot in Budapest by Guillermo del Toro and released in 2008, with Perlman and Blair returning. Jones also returned as Abe Sapien, and also in two other roles, The Angel of Death and The Chamberlain. Revolution Studios had planned on making the film, but the studio went out of business before filming. Universal Studios then picked it up. The plot is a shift to more folklore rather than action, with heavy European overtones. The character of Johann Kraus was added to the team, voiced by Seth MacFarlane. The character Roger the Homunculus was not, but he was written into the plot as a very prominent character in early drafts of the script. The character of Agent Myers from the first film does not return, his absence being explained by Liz remarking that Hellboy had him transferred to Antarctica out of jealousy. Hellboy also reveals himself to the outside world in this film, and Liz is revealed to be pregnant with his twin children. On November 11, 2008, the film was released on DVD.''Hellboy'' (2019)
In May 2017, Mignola announced Millennium Media's plans for an R-rated reboot, at the time titled Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen, with David Harbour as the titular character and Neil Marshall directing from a script by Andrew Cosby, Christopher Golden and Mignola. The film draws inspiration from Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, The Storm and the Fury, and Hellboy in Mexico. The film, later retitled as Hellboy, was released on April 12, 2019, to negative reviews. It grossed $55.1 million against a $50 million production budget, with several media outlets declaring it a box office bomb. In 2022, Marshall decried the film, calling it the "worst professional experience" of his life due to creative control being taken from him by the producers and that the script was not salvageable, concluding that "there's nothing of me in that movie."''Hellboy: The Crooked Man'' (2024)
In February 2023, Millennium Media announced plans for another reboot titled Hellboy: The Crooked Man, the first in a potential series of films. Brian Taylor directed from a script by Mignola and Golden, based on the 2008 comic of the same name, with Jack Kesy as Hellboy. The film was released direct-to-VOD in the United States on October 8, 2024.Cancelled projects
''Hellboy III''
During prerelease promotion for The Golden Army, Guillermo del Toro indicated interest in a third movie: "I think we would all come back to do a third Hellboy I certainly know where we're going with the movie on the third one." Over the years, del Toro would opine that the project was unlikely to happen, citing many difficulties including securing funding for the increased scope he envisioned.In 2017, the rights holders opted for a reboot and relaunch of Hellboy on film rather than continuing with del Toro's involvement. Though Perlman continued to express a desire to finish the trilogy with del Toro well into the 2020s, by 2024 he had "let go of the fight" to make the film.
''Hellboy: Silverlance''
In 2010, Hellboy screenwriter Peter Briggs was asked by Universal to script a spin-off centring on Prince Nuada, and provisionally agreed that Briggs could direct the film in New Zealand. Briggs began work on an outline with co-writer Aaron Mason. Titled Hellboy: Silverlance, the script was a B.P.R.D. story featuring Abe Sapien as the main character with Hellboy in a supporting role. Moving into the new B.P.R.D. headquarters in Colorado, Abe is troubled by his psychic connection with Princess Nuala, and begins researching the elves' history. The film would have shown Nuada's adventures throughout history, including his rivalry with a fairy courtier who orchestrates Nuada's exile in hopes of marrying Nuala and seizing control of the fairy kingdom; Nuada first meeting Mister Wink by saving him from a troupe of soldiers during the Spanish Inquisition; and Nuada in Nazi Germany, engineering a pact to keep various supernatural entities safe during World War II. Doug Jones would have played both Abe and the Angel of Death, who strikes a bargain with Nuada. Rupert Evans's Agent Myers would also have returned. The story climaxed at the new B.P.R.D. headquarters, with the return of Rasputin's summoning gauntlet. Universal wanted to proceed with the project, but it emerged that del Toro's Hellboy 3 was still a possibility, so Silverlance was shelved.In 2015, Briggs received another call from Universal, saying that Hellboy 3 had been cancelled and asking him and Mason to return for a reworked Silverlance, with producer Lawrence Gordon involved. The caveat was that Hellboy could not appear, but the writers managed to get the character a cameo appearance at the climax. If successful, the film would have launched a From the Files of the B.P.R.D. spin-off series.
In May 2017, Briggs affirmed that, with the announcement of the Hellboy reboot, the Silverlance project was dead.
Television
Live-action pilot
The B.P.R.D. Declassified, a 22-minute television pilot centering on the B.P.R.D, was written and directed by Ben Rock and aired on FX on March 22, 2004.Animated films
On November 9, 2005, IDT Entertainment issued a press release announcing that the company had licensed the rights to develop "animated content for television and home entertainment" based on the Hellboy comic. Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones and John Hurt have all voiced their respective characters. Actress Peri Gilpin joined the cast as Professor Kate Corrigan.The first two 75-minute animated films, Sword of Storms and Blood and Iron, aired on Cartoon Network before being released on DVD. The first one aired on October 28, 2006, and the second aired on March 10, 2007.
Both stories have much more in common with the comic book Hellboy rather than the film — Abe Sapien is not psychic, for example, and the artwork and color palette is derived more from Mignola's original artwork. The DVD of Sword of Storms was released on February 6, 2007; it contains documentary material, commentary, and a Hellboy comic, "Phantom Limbs". Blood and Iron similarly contains a comic called "The Yearning".
After the initial release, some stores included exclusive giveaways with copies of the Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron DVD:
- Best Buy: A 7" Hellboy figure
- Walmart: An 80-page digest titled The Judgment Bell
- Transworld: A 64-page Hellboy Digest
- Infinity: A Lobster Johnson magnet
- Circuit City – A Hellboy "Bust-Up"
A third animated Hellboy film, The Phantom Claw, has been put on hold. Tad Stones, director and writer of the direct-to-video films, says the film would have starred Lobster Johnson and had some familiar characters, but Abe and Liz would not be in the film.
Animated short films
Hellboy: Iron Shoes was included as a bonus feature on the Hellboy: Blood and Iron DVD, with the cast reprising their roles. The Dark Below was released on various streaming services, with Hellboy voiced by Zebulon Pike.Other media
Novels and anthologies
Christopher Golden has written several novels about the character, the first two of which, The Lost Army and The Bones of Giants, are part of the official Hellboy story canon. The events of both these novels are listed in the comic's official timeline featured in Hellboy: The Companion. In particular, the Golden-penned character of Anastasia Bransfield was also described in the companion, despite having never actually appeared in a comic.- Hellboy: The Lost Army
- Hellboy: Odd Jobs
- Hellboy: The Bones of Giants
- Hellboy: Odder Jobs
- Hellboy: On Earth As It Is In Hell
- Hellboy: Unnatural Selection
- Hellboy: The God Machine
- Hellboy: The Dragon Pool
- Hellboy: Emerald Hell
- Hellboy: The All-Seeing Eye
- Hellboy: Oddest Jobs
- Hellboy: The Fire Wolves
- Hellboy: The Ice Wolves
- ''Hellboy: An Assortment of Horrors''
Video games
A Hellboy video game called Hellboy: Dogs of the Night, developed by Cryo Interactive, was released in 2000 for Microsoft Windows. It was ported to PlayStation as Hellboy: Asylum Seeker with David Gasman voicing Hellboy.On April 6, 2005, Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro announced on his official site that he had made a deal with the developer Konami to create a new Hellboy video game based on the film version of the character and his world, featuring new monsters, new villains, and a new storyline. Herman von Klempt and his war ape Kriegaffe #10 were slated to make appearances. On May 9, 2006, it was revealed that the Hellboy game would appear in the summer of 2007, on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Portable. The game was released in North America on June 24, 2008, with the name Hellboy: The Science of Evil with Ron Perlman reprising his role. It is developed by Krome Studios, and published by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. As well as single-player campaign where the player gets to play as Hellboy the game also features co-op play, featuring the characters Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman. Two additional levels and Lobster Johnson as a playable character as DLC were developed but were unreleased.
A Hellboy video game called Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Tooth Fairy Terror was released for the iPhone by Tuesday Creative on January 14, 2009.
Hellboy is a playable DLC character in Injustice 2, voiced by Bruce Barker, as part of the "Fighter Pack 2". The character was released for download on Tuesday, November 14, 2017. He is brought to the Injustice universe by Brainiac who decides to add him to his collection as he is fascinated by Hellboy's human-like mind and personality despite being a demon. In his ending, Hellboy escapes from Brainiac's collection and defeats him. As a result, he is asked to assist in rounding up local supervillains before eventually returning to the B.P.R.D. but finds his work there unfulfilling and ends up retiring to Africa.
Hellboy appeared as a playable character in Brawlhalla.
A Hellboy roguelike video game, titled Hellboy Web of Wyrd, was released on October 18, 2023, by developer Upstream Arcade. It is available on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Lance Reddick voices the title character and it was one of his final productions prior to his death. The game is dedicated in his memory.
The Heavy from Team Fortress 2 has a cosmetic item based on Hellboy's horns.
Tabletop games
In 2002, Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game was published by Steve Jackson Games using their GURPS role-playing system, in both softcover and hardback.Mantic Games released a Hellboy: The Board Game in 2019, after a successful crowdfunding campaign.
In 2020, Mantic Games followed up the boardgame with another Hellboy Kickstarter campaign, this time for a new Hellboy roleplaying game, using D&D 5E as a base for the game rules. The roleplaying game was released in March 2021.