Stranger Things actor David Harbour was announced as the new lead actor for the Hellboy franchise in May and now American Gods actor Ian McShane has joined the cast of the upcoming Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen.
McShane will reportedly play the titular demon’s adoptive father, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, informally known as Professor Broom in franchise’s comic-book source material. McShane replaces John Hurt in the role after the latter actor portrayed the character in director Guillermo del Toro’s first two installments of the movie franchise.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen will begin filming in September, with plans to shoot the film around the U.K. and Bulgaria.
Rise of the Blood Queen is set to be helmed by The Descent and Game of Thrones director Neil Marshall from a script penned by Andrew Cosby (Eureka), Christopher Golden (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds video game), and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. The film is framed as a reboot of the series, with Harbour replacing original franchise star Ron Perlman as Hellboy, a demon summoned by the Nazis during World War II but raised by a human professor in an organization dedicated to protecting the world from occult threats.
The new film is expected to pit Hellboy against “a medieval sorceress who seeks to destroy humankind.”
The “Blood Queen” in the title likely refers to the sorceress Nimue, a character introduced in a 2007 issue Hellboy who nearly brought about the extinction of all humanity on Earth.
Currently starring in the Starz series American Gods, based on Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name, McShane is a two-time Golden Globe Award nominee and a Golden Globe Award winner and Primetime Emmy Award nominee for his portrayal of saloon owner Al Swearengen on HBO’s Deadwood. He also appeared in both installments of the John Wick franchise, portraying the owner of a hotel for elite, international assassins.
The first Hellboy movie hit theaters in April 2004 and earned $99.3 million worldwide after being made for $66 million. The film’s 2008 sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, earned $160.3 million worldwide from a slightly higher, $85 million production budget.
There is no official release date yet for Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen, but the film is expected to hit theaters in late 2018.
