Once upon a time, the Hellboy movies were pretty good, and when they were slightly less good, they were at least really cool to look at. (Guillermo del Toro movies are pretty much always really cool to look at.) Then, in 2019, director Neil Marshall made a notably less fun and cool-looking Hellboy that starred David Harbour as the titular character and unforgivably wasted a potentially great supporting cast that included Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim, and Sophie Okenedo.
At least that movie still had a few saturated colors, though. Now, there’s a new Hellboy on the block, and the first look at it is drab, self-serious, and unoriginal—which is all pretty sad given that Hellboy is a fascinating character who doesn’t need to be any of those things. Hellboy: The Crooked Man is directed by Brian Taylor (Crank) and stars Jack Kesy (The Outpost) as the somewhat faded-out looking demon. It’s written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and author Christopher Golden.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the new film is set in the 1960s Appalachia, where the Crooked Man “is collecting souls for the devil.” Adeline Rudolph (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) costars as a rookie Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense agent who winds up working with Hellboy to stop this evil process. The movie also stars Jefferson White, Leah McNamara, Joseph Marcell, Hannah Margetson, and Martin Bassindale.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man is “coming soon.”
