‘Hellboy 3’ Is Officially, Totally, Completely Dead [Updated]
UPDATE:Hellboycreator Mike Mignola has spoken about what went down and why there won’t be a thirdHellboymovie. We have added his statement to the article below.
Everyone fought the good fight, but the war is over: according to directorGuillermo del Toro,Hellboy 3is officially dead and not going to happen. And that’s that.
The Oscar-nominated filmmaker, whose colorful and frequently brilliant filmography includes everything fromPan’s LabyrinthtoCrimson Peak, revealed the sad news on Twitter. Those who follow del Toro on social media know that he’s generally gregarious and jolly, rotating between thoughtful insights and crude jokes at a moment’s notice. But you may cut the air of melancholy around this tweet with a blade:
Hellboy 3 Sorry to report: Spoke w all parties. Must report that 100% the sequel will not happen. And that is to be the final thing about it
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT)July 21, 2025
Del Toro is referring toa promise he made a few weeks ago, when he said he’d sit down withHellboycreatorMike Mignolaand series starRon Perlmanto talk about a third movie if fans showcased enough interest on Twitter. When the dust cleared, 132,938 fans made it clear that this meeting needed to happen and thatHellboy 3needed to exist. Although we don’t know exactly what went down, it seems that the meeting was not fruitful.
This is a bitter conclusion forHellboyfans, who have watched the series struggle on the big screen despite being more imaginative and fun than most Hollywood blockbusters. The first film only did modest business at the box office, but it did killer business on home video, helping a sequel get greenlit at a different studio. Unfortunately, the even betterHellboy II: The Golden Armyarrived the same summer asThe Dark Knightand was immediately swept under the rug. And then fans spent the better part of a decade crossing their fingers, especially since Perlmanhas continuously talked about would go down in a third movie and how it had to get made.
So now,Hellboy IIis a conclusion rather than a middle chapter and it’s all very bittersweet. Sure, Hellboy is free of the job that forced him to live in the shadows and he’s about to become a father, but this happy ending is tinged by the forever-unresolved detail that he’s still destined to be a vital cog in the engine that kickstarts the apocalypse.
The only silver lining here is that movie fans can still check out Mignola’sHellboycomics, which are beautiful and creepy and funny. They’re a different flavor than the movies (comic book Hellboy is more of a working class sad sack than his film counterpart), but they offer something the movies cannot: an ending. TheHellboycomic series ended last year and it ended brilliantly. For some of us, we can hang on to that sense of closure.
In the meantime, del Toro is working on his Cold War creature featureThe Shape of Water, which is expected to arrive at some point this year.
UPDATE:In an interview with the French publicationLe Figaro,Hellboycreator Mike Mignola shed more light on what went down behind-the-scenes withHellboy 3. Here’s a rough translation:
In a Facebook comment, Mignola clarified his statement:
While Mignola leaves the door open for futureHellboyprojects, it looks like his time collaborating with del Toro has come to an end.
