'Hellboy' failed even before we began shooting, says David Harbour

Actor David Harbour says his "Hellboy" film was doomed from the start because the fans of Guillermo del Toro's original films were against the idea of a reboot.

The actor had played the titular hero in 2019's critical and box office misfire, "Hellboy". Directed by Neil Marshall, the movie also featured Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim.

Speaking to his followers via Instagram Stories, Harbour said the movie "failed before we began shooting".

"I think it failed before we began shooting because I think that people didn't want us to make the movie and for some reason there was like a big... Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman created this iconic thing that we thought could be reinvented...

"And then they certainly -- the loudness of the internet was like, 'We do not want you to touch this.' And then we made a movie that I think is fun and I think had its problems but was a fun movie and then people were just very very against it and that's people's right but I learned my lesson in a lot of different way," Harbour said.

del Toro had famously kick-started franchise with 2004's "Hellboy", featuring Ron Perlman in the lead. The director had followed it up with 2008's "Hellboy II: The Golden Army". 

The director and the actor were set to comeback for a third film but due to lack of funding, the project could not be materialised. 

"Hellboy" was created in 1993 by Mignola and became an indie comic hit as it talked of a demon, raised by a professor, working to fight supernatural evildoers for an organisation called Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.