Mike Mignola Confirms That New Hellboy Film Will Remain Faithful To ‘The Wild Hunt’ Source Material
by Hannah Means Shannon
The new Hellboy movie is set for a January 2019 release date–one that’s rapidly approaching for fans–and it you follow Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s social media, he’s been talking a lot about the exciting developments in film shoots over the past few months.
The film will be directed by Neil Marshall and stars Stranger Things’ David Harbour as our beloved protagonist.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mignola confirmed what’s been rumored for some time, that the new film will be based upon “The Wild Hunt” storyline from the comics, drawn by artist Duncan Fegredo, blending elements from Celtic and Arthurian legends, and that it will be fairly faithful to the comics, too.
Mignola says:
I’ve bounced back and forth with them about how to adapt this particular Hellboy story. At various times I’ve jumped in and been much more active in the screenplay than I ever was on the Del Toro movies…I came in and I looked at some stuff, but they were trying to do something so close to what’s on the comics that they really leaned on what had been done by Duncan [Fegredo] and me in the comics.
He adds:
I think the bulk of the characters in the film are established in the comic. It was insane for me to walk in there and see that someone did a really nice rendering of a creature I created or Duncan created. It’s got a whole different feel from the older movies. Duncan’s not working on it, but I did see stuff in the movie that was so close to what Duncan drew, more so than what was in the previous movies. It was pretty exciting.
Conveniently for fans, there’s an upcoming omnibus edition of The Wild Hunt storyline to catch up on, or simply commemorate what has been a very rewarding storyline in the Hellboy Universe for readers. You can find pre-order information for that here.
But there’s more to feed your Hellboy fandom if you are anywhere remotely near New York City from now until April 21st, 2018. You can visit an extensive exhibition of Hellboy artwork by Mike Mignola at the Society of Illustrators. I’ve marked my calendar, and you should, too.
