The first time we saw footage from the Hellboy reboot we were left with a bit of a bitter taste in our mouths. I mean, just check out the first reactions: It was cheesy, a little lame, and not what we were expecting at all. The new Hellboy trailer, on the other hand, looks to be so much better than the original.
Of course, you can decide for yourself by watching it above, but the hit-and-miss comedy seems to now be mostly hits, the new villain looks genuinely terrifying and - whisper it - it looks like a proper Hellboy movie, one in the mould of Guillermo del Toro.
So, what’s changed in the new Hellboy trailer? For one thing, it’s not straying too far from what made the series popular in the first place. We are taken whistle-stop tour of the demon’s origins, before being presented with the Blood Queen Nimue, the villain of the piece played by Milla Jovovich. Something tells me she is behind the great hulking creature parading through London. I’m not stopping him and trying to make him pay the Congestion Charge, that’s for sure.
Elsewhere, we are acquainted with some of the supporting cast. It’s always nice to see Ian McShane, and he’s here as Hellboy’s father figure Professor Bruttenholm, while Lost’s (yes, that’s where you recognise him from) Daniel Dae Kim plays Ben Daimio who turns into a huge leopard-like creature to help Hellboy battle the hordes of the dead inside a church. Meow.
Most of all, though, many will appreciate just how bloody the new Hellboy trailer is. It’s R-rated (a first for the franchise) and it makes good use of it. It definitely chimes with what the Hellboy creator accidentally let slip about the new Hellboy trailer being better than the original. There’s swords going through heads; litres and litres of blood being rained down and, in a Thanos-stealing move, people are being turned to ash left, right, and centre.
A pretty decent return from Hellboy, then. The trailer is proof that the movie that isn’t going to hold back on the gore and the pottymouth – Hellboy describes Nimue as “fucking nuts” in one scene – while also seeing David Harbour now feeling at home in the role.
Maybe first impressions don’t always count. There's also a new poster for Hellboy - which hits cinemas on April 11 in the UK and April 12 in the US - which you can see below:
Take a trip down memory lane and find out what fans thought of the very first Hellboy trailer shown at NYCC 2018. It might just surprise you...
You can also see the best of everything else that's coming this year in our 2019 round-up video below!
