David Harbour: 'Hellboy' reboot is 'ridiculously gory' compared to the previous films

The new Hellboy reboot is much darker than the previous Guillermo Del Toro-directed movies, says David Harbour who plays the title role.

Speaking to Yahoo Movies UK, the Stranger Things star revealed the multiple ways the newly rebooted comic book movie is different to Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), which both starred Ron Perlman as the hero from hell.

While noting that he and the team behind the scenes – including The Descent director Neil Marshall – went back to the source material of the Hellboy graphic novels for this film, rather than referring directly to Del Toro’s adaptations.

Read more: The great Hellboy ‘virginity’ debate

“I don’t want to try to recreate something,” Harbour explains, “[so] we paid a lot more attention to the source material directly.”

“Our story based a lot on this comic, The Wild Hunt, and we’re even pulling directly from the page in terms of shots, and I like that.”

“It’s kind of gory, like almost ridiculously so, almost like a Tarantino film,” reveals Harbour of the R-rated movie (12A in the UK) following in the footsteps of recent R-rated comic book movie successes such as Deadpool and Logan.

“That’s the impulse,” he adds, “just this world of violence that is just out of control.”

And being gory goes hand in hand with being darker “on all levels,” according to Harbour.

Read more: David Harbour joins the MCU

“It has a darker colour palette, Guillermo’s world is very colourful, and our world is very dark, and primary colours, with sometimes Hellboy being the only red thing in the frame.”

“But, of course, it’s still the same Hellboy character,” says Harbour.

Speaking to Yahoo, Harbour also broke down the multiple post-credits sequences at the end of the film which cinemagoers should look out for – and the potential sequels they set up for a future movie franchise – more on that coming soon.

Hellboy hits cinemas 11 April 2019. Watch a clip below.