How David Harbour's Hellboy Will Be Different

Screen Rant

David Harbour Shares How His Hellboy Will Differ From Ron Perlman's

By Corey Hoffmeyer

Published Aug 22, 2017

David Harbour opens up on how his version of Mike Mignola's Hellboy differs from Ron Perlman's much beloved take on the character.

David Harbour has big shoes to fill when he steps into the title role of the upcoming Hellboy reboot, but he is now assuring fans that he will approach the role differently than his predecessor Ron Perlman. When the Hellboy reboot was first announced, fan response was seemingly divided due in large part to Perlman’s well received take on the character. Though with director Guillermo del Toro’s proposed third Hellboy film officially never happening, it was only a matter of time before an inevitable reboot found its way into production.

Still, Lionsgate and Millennium Films have done their best to bring higher profile names to the reboot, including Harbour (best known for his role in Stranger Things) as Hellboy and director Neil Marshall (The Descent) taking up the helm. Hellboy will also be much darker than previous films, including gore and more mature themes that will help Marshall usher in the first R-rated film with the property. Those elements alone are enough to certainly give Hellboy a different feel than del Toro’s take, but Harbour has now clarified how his interpretation of the character will differ from Perlman’s.

During a guest appearance on MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Harbour revealed how he’ll approach the character of Hellboy and how it differs from Perlman’s, saying:

Ron Pearlman and Selma Blair in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

“Ron sort of embraces this machismo in himself and in Hellboy, and I really like it and it’s super fun and it’s a super fun performance. But I think Hellboy has a certain psycho-dynamic, where occasionally he has to prove that he’s the lion, has to roar, and I think he struggles with his own masculinity. But I don’t think he needs that as much as maybe those other movies. I have a bit of a different take on his capability or his slickness. I sort of think that for me he’s a little less skilled at constructing that persona.”

This certainly seems to tie in with Harbour’s previous comments on darker and more mature themes for the Hellboy reboot, and the actor seems to indicate that the character will be wilder than Perlman’s take. Harbour relying less on the laid back façade that Perlman utilized also seems to lend credence to the recently revealed information that the film will be a “darker horror story” that will mostly abandon the lighter tone found in del Toro’s films.

While Harbour seems to have a large amount of respect for Perlman and his performance as Hellboy, from his comments above, there’s a general feeling that the actor is trying to differentiate himself as much as possible from Perlman. Whether that ends up working to Harbour’s benefit or not remains to be seen, but in the meantime the Hellboy reboot is busy filling out its cast (including the recent addition of Sasha Lane in a starring role) with well-known actors like Ian McShane as Hellboy’s adoptive father Professor Bruttenholm and Milla Jovovich as the primary villain the Blood Queen being the most prominent additions.