“I just love the comics. I was sort of introduced to them…when I was very depressed in my early 20s in New York, in sort of a darker phase of life,” Harbour says, referring to a time he’d battled alcohol addiction.
“And they really are very cathartic for that sort of thing, you know?”
In the movie, Hellboy is raised by a human father — played by John Wick vet Ian McShane — and becomes an agent for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD), a kind of Men In Black for the supernatural world.
As Harbour notes, “I mean it’s a it’s a crazy, dark sort of concept: a half-demon who was spawned by Nazi occultists and is meant to bring about the end of the world — but has a good heart and wants to be a ‘good guy.'”
But while Marvel has managed to create an entire decade of interconnected superhero movies, Harbour isn’t going there.
“[T]here are some Easter eggy sort of things and some open threads, but we weren’t trying to…set up franchise, or set up a universe,” he explains. “We just wanted to make great Hellboy movie.”
Still, he admits that the source material is rich for a sequel, noting, “Sure, like, in my wildest fantasies, there are so many threads…and so many great characters.”
Hellboy, which also stars Milla Jovovich and Daniel Dae Kim, is now playing.
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