Hellboy: The Crooked Man writer and creator Mike Mignola confirmed that the upcoming movie will be the most faithful adaptation of his work yet.
The next Hellboy film follows Mignola's favorite Hellboy storyline. This smaller, more intimate affair sees the titular hero working to break a witch’s curse as he becomes stranded in rural Appalachia.
The Crooked Man is the fourth live-action entry in the franchise, with Jack Kesy the third to transform into Hellboy himself.
The most recent take on the IP, 2019’s Hellboy, starring David Harbour, did not do well. It currently has a 17% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Needless to say, Crooked Man has a tough act to follow.
Everything We Know About Hellboy: The Crooked Man's Release and Cast
As of writing, Hellboy: The Crooked Man does not have an official release date.
However, in an interview with Screen Rant at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), director Brian Taylor revealed that he thinks the release date will be in September, though no further specifics were revealed.
The cast is confirmed to include the following talented actors:
- Jack Kesy - Hellboy
- Lea McNamara - Effie Kolb
- Adeline Rudolph - Bobbie Jo Song
- Jefferson White - Tom Ferrell
- Joseph Marcell - Reverend Watts
- Martin Bassindale - The Crooked Man
- Hannah Margetson - Cora Fisher
- Carola Colombo - Sarah
Hellboy: The Crooked Man's Cast Talks to The Direct at SDCC
In a series of exclusive interviews with The Direct's Russ Milheim at San SDCC, the cast and filmmakers behind Hellboy: The Crooked Man discussed the upcoming entry in the fan-favorite franchise.
When asked how the team went into this particular iteration, following one beloved take and another that didn't stick the landing, writer and creator Mike Mignola said, "There's no magic formula."
He also confirmed that The Crooked Man "is the most faithful adaptation of [his] material:"
"There's no magic formula for, Oh, this is the one that's going to work... All I can say for sure is this is the most faithful adaptation of my material. But over the years, we've got an entire audience of 'Hellboy' fans that aren't familiar with the source material, so you never quite know how they're gonna vote. So we just hope for the best."
One thing that sets The Crooked Man apart from other Hellboy stories is that it's smaller tale than audiences are used to from the character.
"We based it on a story that wasn't bombastic," with Mignola instead choosing "a folk horror story:"
"Well, we based it on a story that wasn't bombastic. We based it on a folk horror story, the most folk horror 'Hellboy' story. It was my favorite story because it didn't have all that baggage of the end of the world, giant demons, and all that kind of stuff. It's based on real Appalachian folklore that I wove together into a plot in almost a magical kind of way. I was reading all these things, and something in the back of my head said, 'Oh, we're working on combining all those elements that you're finding.'"
Mignola confirmed that while this is "A Crooked Man" movie, there is "a little bit of The Chain Coffin put in there as well:"
"At some point the little man in the back of my head said, 'We're done. We got it. We fit all those straight pieces together!' And it was just a good character movie. It was more a Tom movie than a 'Hellboy' movie. So we did have to bring a piece of another 'Hellboy' story into it. ... We said it's 'A Crooked Man' with a little bit of 'The Chain Coffin' put in. Boom, that's what it is. It's going to follow that track. It's going to follow that story as much as we can, and that's it."
Director Brian Taylor admitted that he didn't think of this movie as another "iteration or reboot" but instead made it his goal "to adapt this story and do it as truly as [he] can:"
"I didn't think of it as an iteration or reboot or anything like that. I had nothing to do with those movies. But I love the character and I love the books, so I just took to it very simple. Imagine I was adapting a Stephen King story. I'm just going to adapt this story and do it as truly as I can."
Mignola also confirmed that the film "[doesn't] see BPRD headquarters" or "Abe Sapien:"
"And the thing is, because this is such a standalone 'Hellboy' story, we don't see BPRD headquarters, we don't see Abe Sapien. We don't see any of that other stuff. You could take this and fit it into whichever is your favorite Hellboy."
Jack Kesy leads the charge as Hellboy. He is the third person to don the red makeup, horns, and iconic fist.
"I took it on as a challenge," the actor answered when asked how he handled the pressure of following everything that came before:
"I took it on as a challenge. I love to be challenged. So, put me in a corner against the wall, the better I do. So, no pressure. It was a collaborative movie. So much of it is done for you, in a sense, where Mike obviously created a comic book, and we pulled directly from the comic book, sometimes even frame by frame. Outside of maybe Bobbie Jo Song, the character, and a couple of scenes that were stitched in there."
"It's faithful to the comic book," Kesy said, adding how "it was a good challenge:"
"It's really Mike's baby, and it's faithful to the comic book. So, in some sense, the road work was done for us. But as far as making it my own, I mean, I could relate to him outside of having horns in a tail and being half demon. When I saw his personality, I was like, Oh, it's going to be fun doing this.' Yeah. So it was a good challenge."
The actor then compared The Crooked Man to "a campfire story:"
"It's like a campfire story. It's really small, contained, more human, and I would even say [more] relatable. It's like bare survival. There's no glamping. It's camping, you know? It's bare bones. It's Hellboy, Bobbie Jo, and Tom on a journey."
When worrying if fans will like this iteration of the character, Adeline Rudolph, who plays Bobbie Jo Song, noted that that's always a part of tackling any big IP:
"If you're tackling anything with IP, you're afraid that the fans won't love it. What we have on our side is Mike [Mignola]! So we're excited and happy that he's here. We're so honored that he co-wrote this script. We really hope that people love it. I feel like all the other past iterations, they stand on their own two feet. There's no use in comparing. I think they're all amazing. We just hope that people are open-minded and give this one a shot, especially since it is based on the specific comic iteration of 'The Crooked Man.'"
The actress noted that the most unique part of the experience was "acting opposite of someone who was in full prosthetics every single day:"
"What was really unique was acting opposite of someone who was in full prosthetics every single day, a red man... Jack made him feel so human that I forgot he was red... He did such a fantastic job grounding him, making him so real."
Actor Jefferson White, who plays Tom Ferrell in the film, a man who dabbles in Witchcraft, was also on hand at SDCC to talk about his time in the movie.
White called the role "such a fun gift," describing his character as a "relatively normal guy cast into insane circumstances:"
"Our number one point of reference for this film was the book, 'The Crooked Man,' which is Mike Mignola's favorite of the Hellboy stories. We tried to use that primarily as our reference for this. And Tom on the page is this relatively normal guy cast into insane circumstances. In every panel, he's getting attacked from every direction by truly bizarre shit he's never experienced before. And that's such a fun gift. As an actor, your job is just to be there and torespond to these amazing practical effects flying at you from every direction."
Hellboy: The Crooked Man is set to release in September 2024.
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