The Big Picture
- Jack Kesy was chosen to play Hellboy in the upcoming reboot The Crooked Man because his personality and acting style align well with the dark and moody tone of the film.
- The reboot will stand out by placing Hellboy in an unusual time period, where he must save a small town under the control of a demon from his past.
- The decision to reboot Hellboy comes with the hope that a fresh start will help launch the franchise successfully.
A new version of Hellboy is getting ready to make an impression on the big screen next year, when Hellboy: The Crooked Man premieres in theaters. While the role has been played by recognizable faces in the past, the reboot will allow Jack Kesy to step into the shoes of the rough hero. During a recent interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff for Expend4bles, Les Weldon, one of the producers behind The Crooked Man, talked about why Kesy was chosen for the role above all the other performers who auditioned for a chance to wear the iconic trenchcoat and horns:
We went on a long soul-searching expedition to find the right Hellboy, and we knew that this Hellboy was gonna be a very moody, very kind of dark and creepy movie. There’s no gloss, nothing like that. And Jack, look, I had worked with Jack before, as had other guys in our company, and we sort of came to the same conclusion that that sort of personality he has was gonna work really nicely for that film
The reboot will attempt to stand out from previous iterations of the character by placing Hellboy in an unusual time period, where he will have to save a small town that’s under the control of a demon from his past. The titular Crooked Man wasn’t taken down by Hellboy during their previous encounter, and with the powerful entity hurting the people of the town, the protagonist will have no other choice but to intervene in the ongoing conflict. Brian Taylor sat in the director’s chair for the reboot, bringing his vision to a character that has appeared on the big screen plenty of times over the past two decades.
The movie will be based on the limited comic book series of the same name, where Hellboy went to the Appalachian Mountains after completing an unrelated mission. It was there where he met Tom Ferrell (played in the upcoming movie by Jefferson White), a man who was initially educated as a witch, but decided to walk away from the practices related to his upbringing. If the film is faithful to the comic books it will be based on, dark days await for the arrival of Hellboy, as he and his allies try to deal with the powerful demon.
The Need for a Reboot
The fact that Dark Horse Entertainment is comfortable moving forward with a new version of Hellboy is related to the fact the previous iteration didn’t perform very well in theaters. In 2019, Neil Marshall directed yet another introduction for the hero, portrayed by David Harbour. After only earning $55 million at the worldwide box office, it was clear that a reboot was needed to try launching the franchise one more time.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man is currently scheduled to hit theaters next year.
