An American Gods star will now play an important role in the Hellboy franchise.
Ian McShane will be joining the cast of Lionsgate and Millenium’s Hellboy reboot. He will be playing the title character’s adoptive father, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm.
McShane will join director Neil Marshall, known for his work on Game of Thrones. He will also be joining Stranger Things actor David Harbour, who will be playing the titular role of Hellboy.
Add to that the recent news, the working title for the movie Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen was dropped, and now the film will just be called Hellboy.
What Does A Title Change Mean?
The Queen of Blood, Nimue, is a witch from the middle ages who imprisoned Merlin, the famed sorcerer in the employ of King Arthur. Some treacherous elements within her own ranks eventually kill her. An occult ritual revives the medieval witch in the 20th century. Upon revival she carries on her death quest against all of mankind. Luckily, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. are there to face off against her.
The change in the working title for the movie has caused a bit of stir in the comic book community. Comic book fans assumed the story would take from the comic’s tale of the Queen of Blood’s appearance in Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #2. That was with the previous working title. Now that the title has changed, does this mean Nimue will no longer be in the movie? What will the script of Hellboy look like now? How about the casting?
There hasn’t been any news about casting for the rest of the BPRD crew. Also, IMDB only lists Ian McShane and David Harbour in their respective roles of Professor Broom and Hellboy.
Andrew Cosby and Christopher Golden are writing the reboot. The new iteration of Hellboy is slated for a 2018 release with filming set to start in September of this year.