Who Killed Hellboy 3?

It isn’t a very hot take for me to preach once every six or less months that Guillermo Del Toro is the closest proximity to an Alfred Hitchcock that we are going to see in our lifetime. His love for monsters is well balanced with his knowledge and appreciation for art as a whole. My favorite “Hollywood moment” was getting to see one of my favorite movies, The Shape of Water, opening night at the Cinerama Dome, share with him face to face that the film was the first I could ever recall crying to, and in return getting a hug I can only describe as a signature that has since stayed on my mind…

So why in the hell do I think he got in his own way? To be honest with you, I didn’t always think so.

A tweet poll Guillermo Del Toro put up on his twitter:

Seeing the original two in their theatrical run a few times, seeing DVDs of both movies even more times, and holding a grudge against my mom for not letting me get issue 231 of Fangoria with Hellboy on the cover; You can guess which option I selected. It didn’t take more than a day or two for the poll to have 107k+ votes and for GDT and Ron Perlman to boast for sometime after about how Hellboy 3 is happening for sure. Which only left talking to Hellboy creator Mike Mignola about solidifying plans, which in writing should be the easiest part of the entire process.

As we all know by now, it was anything but the easiest part.

A little after Guillermo, Ron, and the Internet’s unified disappointment in Hellboy 3 being canceled, Mike Mignola would go on to be interviewed by a French publication Le Figaro. This is an interview that many news outlets chose to not highlight due to the perspective it presents:

“I was not very happy with the way he did that, just publishing a Tweet. I would have been very pleased to see Guillermo with Ron Perlman, who has played Hellboy on the screen since 2004 and discussing this sequel. Ron and I had seen each other. Then, Guillermo made this [show] on the Internet. I said to myself: “Call me if you want to talk to me, do not go through the Internet, you have my number.” I think we’ve both evolved in separate directions since the second Hellboy. I look forward to seeing what he will do next, but I do not see us working together again. He has his idea for the next Hellboy, but, in all sincerity, I do not see him [realizing] the film. Too much water has flowed under the bridges from Hellboy 2.”

At first, I just wrote it off as Mike being petty and that he is the reason we never got a trilogy. After being pleasantly surprised by and loving Hellboy 2019, I looked back at the above statement and asked myself, “Did Guillermo try to do the film industry version of telling dad, “mom said I could,” and it got him grounded from Hellboy for life?”

If we are to compare all this to a recent tweet from Guillermo, there is another suspect in the death of Hellboy 3. One that might be easier to believe:

“What allowed the two films to exist, it’s gone. The Blu-ray DVD performance of the first Hellboy was massive. So big that Ben Feingold, at Columbia, went full-on on the sequel development. Ben was so impressed by those numbers that he made ‘Hellboy’ one of the very first Blu-rays from Columbia. Far as I can recall, the number for home video surpassed theatrical.”

The events that transpired between the two beloved creators three years ago and this recent comment begs the question, “Who killed Hellboy 3?” Was it franchise creator Mike Mignola? Was it famed filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro? Was it the studio? It seems like all of these parties (to some degree) are to blame. Just the rocky relationship of the team alone is responsible for establishing a mindset among “fans” that I believe will kill any chance of Hellboy returning to the big screen at all. The fact that we even got Hellboy 2019 is a miracle. A miracle that is worth the time and money.