Hellboy Synopsis and Filming Locations Reveal More About the Reboot

A new report reveals the basic plot details of the Hellboy reboot and its shooting locations. Anticipation for the film has been brewing since May, when the character’s creator Mike Mignola announced that Hellboy was coming back – not under the auspices of Guillermo del Toro – but as a reboot under the direction of Game of Thrones director Neil Marshall with Stranger Things star David Harbour assuming the titular role, which was first realized by Ron Perlman under del Toro.


From there, the film began to fall into place quite quickly, with a fall start date for production established, and the addition of such cast members as Ian McShane as Professor Broom and Milla Jovivich as Hellboy’s nemesis the Blood Queen. On top of that, word surfaced that the reboot would take on “mature themes” and be a darker and more gruesome R-rated film, and that it was effectively avoiding the origins route.

Now, with the start of production on the film looming, details are starting to leak on the basics of the Hellboy reboot. According to the movie production information site My Entertainment World (via Omega Underground), the film is set to begin production in mid-September in Bulgaria and the U.K. In addition, the site revealed the film’s basic synopsis:

“The film is about Hellboy going to England, where he must defeat Nimue, Merlin’s consort and the Blood Queen. But their battle will bring about the end of the world, a fate he desperately tries to turn away.”

The information released by My Entertainment World definitely reveals a a bit more about the film, and in more than one respect. To begin with, Nimue wasn’t mentioned in the film’s main character list from mid-August, which included Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Major Ben Daimio, Baba Yaga the Witch, King Arthur, Merlin, and Grugach.


On top of that is the back-and-forth nature of the film’s title. My Entertainment World lists it as Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen, which was originally the film’s working title until it was dropped in the favor of the basic Hellboy moniker in early August.


Adding to the confusion, the site adds an “aka Hellboy 3” in parenthesis after the Blood Queen title, which obviously suggests a connection to del Toro’s films somehow. Originally, Mignola said the reboot was connected to the first two del Toro films, but those plans fell apart when del Toro didn’t want anything to do with the new story, and that Perlman wouldn’t do the film without the original helmer.


Whatever the case may be, the issues are definitely less complicated than the major problem that besieged the production when Ed Skrein dropped from playing the role of Major Ben Daimio (an Asian character in the comic books) in response to a whitewashing controversy. If the question of what the film should be called is the biggest problem the filmmakers face from here on out, then the rest of the Hellboy reboot production will be smooth sailing.