With Hellboy II now out and doing good business in the US, thoughts have turned to the third film in the series, a Hellboy III to complete the series. However, there seems to be a bit of an argument brewing already over what form the third film will take, and whether it could actually mean the end of Hellboy the character.
In vogue director Guillermo del Toro is the man behind the films, and he has been able to put his vision for the character on to the big screen. But the man behind the comic book creation is Mike Mignola, and he and del Toro may be headed for some conflict if the third film gets the go ahead.
According to MTV Splash, del Toro has talked about the third film being about facing destiny and making the ultimate decision. With the first film dealing with Hellboy’s birth, and the second dealing with teenage like choices, this vague muttering has lead some to suggest that Hellboy III could see the death of the character. If this were the case, Mignola wouldn’t be too happy.
“The problem is, what del Toro’s talked about to me is that ‘Hellboy III’ would be the end of Hellboy. And here’s where we have the big conflict. My version of Hellboy in the comics is a finite story, but it’s going to take me 15 years to get to the ending. If he makes ‘Hellboy III’ and it’s the death of Hellboy, I’m left doing the comic going, ‘But I’m not done yet.’
“My Hellboy is not going to have kids. My Hellboy is going to die, but I want to be the one who does that. And if del Toro does my ending, there won’t be a lot of surprise when I get to the end of the comic.”
Still, this ending could be a long way off as del Toro is going to be busy making The Hobbit in New Zealand for the next four years or so. The other alternative is for the studio to bring in another director, but the Hellboy films have been so stylised and so uniquely del Toro that I can’t see that working. The future is certainly not clear on this one.
