For a while there, it seemed like the only sure things in life were death, taxes, and Ron Perlman talking up the possibility of a Hellboy 3. Even just scrolling back through our own archives, you can find multiple attempts by Perlman to either talk up the chances of a sequel or get fans to pitch in on the project. Even after Guillermo Del Toro went dark on the subject, Perlman continued to hold out hope that another film would get made.

So the final nail in the coffin for Hellboy 3 might be that Ron Perlman seems to have finally given up. This past weekend, as part of a roundtable discussion on Perlman and Del Toro’s Netflix Trollhunters television series, Screen Rant (via Heroic Hollywood) asked the actor about the status of Hellboy 3. He did not exactly mince words:

We don’t talk about that anymore… (Del Toro is) busy, and I’m busy. Maybe one day he’s going to call and say, ‘Hey, let’s do it.’ But for right now? We’re happy discovering new worlds to conquer.

If this is truly the end for Hellboy 3, then nobody can say that the cast and crew did not give it all they had. Frankly, Del Toro has enough trouble getting projects off the ground; as we noted in our article on the Trollhunters trailer, that series was originally pitched as a movie before becoming an animated novel and finally a television series instead. As long as Del Toro continues to bring his limitless imagination to the big screen, and finds occasion to cast Perlman in supporting roles, then fans should be content to support Del Toro in each of his new creative endeavors. Meanwhile, we’ll pour one out for the Hellboy franchise… at least until they reboot the whole thing with Zack Snyder at the helm.

In the meantime, be sure to check out Del Toro and Perlman in Trollhunters, which will hit Netflix on December 23 of this year.

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