They couldn't just continue the story with a recast Hellboy?
... and a new director?
I'm not sure why this had to be a reboot.
Just say he's a deadbeat dad or that his wife lost the baby and he'd become estranged from his team.
For whatever reason, Mignola seemed to have beef with del Toro and the direction of the first two movies. And it seems from the trailer they're basically doing the apocalypse storyline of Hellboy anyhow, so this is clearly a thematic stand in for HB3. And the tone and style of the movies look pretty much the same as well. Despite talk of grim R treatment. The whole thing is bizarre and annoying. Casual fans will just be confused. Hellboy nuts will probably go bananas for all the easter eggs and characters from the comics. Even if they're not executed well. If they wanted to, this movie could have definitely been handled in such a way as to serve as both Hellboy 3 and a re-imagining of the character, satisfying most everybody. Eh, maybe it's just a clever tactic to avoid the 3rd Movie Curse?
shareYeah, as much noise as everyone makes online, I doubt people would boycott the film if Perlman was simply recast and GDT replaced as director. And it would definitely save having to develop the character from scratch again.
Between this and 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' flopping, I think Hollywood really needs to examine how audiences react to reboots. IMO, people hate them unless they are handle extremely subtly, like 'Creed' which rebooted the 'Rocky' franchise with a brand new lead character, or even 'Spider-Man: Homecoming', which presumed everyone already knew the character's background.
You're giving me an idea! I think people don't actually like reboots. What they want is a "revival."
You see, your examples, Creed isn't actually a reboot. They just "revive" the ideas of the original movie(s). The concepts and the overall feel.
Rocky was a beloved franchise. People love the old movies. So they want to experience the more of the same, but different enough so it's not repetitive. Different story, different main characters, basically new things. But in a familiar package.
The new Jumanji is also like that. It has nothing to do with the O.G. Jumanji. But it has the concepts and the feel of it. It evokes the same old feeling while having everything else to be new and different. It was a success. It "revived" the Jumanji brand.
People loves Hellboy. It's an interesting concept for a superhero with great character designs. What they need to do is to "revive" those feelings. Without making the same movie all over again. Simply rebooting things didn't work with Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man. Didn't work with this Hellboy either.