The new, grosser-looking harbinger of the apocalypse has arrived: it’s the trailer for the freshly rebooted Hellboy.
This time, it’s Stranger Things‘ David Harbour beneath those red rubber pecs, succeeding Ron Perlman and, of course, the OG—Tim Curry in Legend. Now The Descent director Neil Marshall is in the director’s chair, and he’s promised a darker, more horror-infused tone. But while it’s certainly darker visually, but you’d never guess the darker narrative tone from this first preview. The trailer seems to be going for more of a Guardians of the Galaxy or Suicide Squad thing, letting a classic track introduce us to the goofier moments of this oddly-colored, ragtag team.
But while the trailer seems a misstep as often as its green screens are obvious—and is that one shot straight-up repurposed from Jack the Giant Slayer or what?—there’s still a lot to give Hellboy fans hope. Harbour is, predictably, as solid as his silhouette dictates; Daniel Dae Kim is, likewise, as perfectly cast in a Mike Mignola-drawn role as his angular features dictate (also: this guy’s FIFTY?); and astute fans will notice brief glimpses of Hellboy icons like Raputin, Kroenen, Gruagach—the bipedal boar freak seen beside Milla Jovovich’s Blood Queen—and the flaming crown imagery the comic series has long put out there. So that’s cool.
Anyway, we’ll see how this does without the perfection of David Hyde Pierce’s Abe Sapien when Hellboy hits theaters April 12.
