First Look At ‘Stranger Things’ Star David Harbour As Hellboy

With the dust seemingly settled, at least for the moment, on the whitewashing controversy around the film (to sum up briefly: “Deadpool” actor Ed Skrein was cast as a character who in the comics is a Japanese-American character who can turn into a jaguar, Skrein dropped out when he learned about the backlash, “Lost” star Daniel Dae Kim replaced him), shooting is imminently underway on the reboot of the “Hellboy” comic-book franchise.

Intended as a lower-budget, R-rated, horror-skewing take on Mike Mignola’s seminal property, the new “Hellboy” may disappoint some who wanted a third film from Guillermo Del Toro and Ron Perlman, but it’s shaping up to be intriguing enough on its own. Mignola himself is among the writers of the screenplay, “The Descent” and “Game Of Thrones” director Neil Marshall is helming, and quite an interesting cast has been assembled: Ian McShane stepping into the late John Hurt’s shoes as Professor Broom, “American Honey” breakout Sasha Lane as a magical Irish woman, and Milla Jovovich as villainess Nimue The Blood Queen, a medieval sorceress who Hellboy and the rest of the BPRD will take on.

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And as the big red cigar-chomping demonic hero himself, it’s veteran character actor David Harbour, suddenly a box office draw after his terrific, Emmy-nominated performance in Netflix smash “Stranger Things.” And to mark the approach of principal photography, the filmmakers have revealed a first look at Harbour in make-up and costume as the hero.

And it… looks like Hellboy. Which is to say that we weren’t entirely sure that it wasn’t an old shot of Perlman until Mignola himself tweeted the image. (Harbour has now tweeted a second look) Anyway, see it in all its glory below, and start counting the days until “Hellboy” (as the reboot is simply known) hits theaters sometime in 2018 or early 2019.