Ron Perlman

Pottersville looks like it has been competently Photoshopped together using clips of all these actors’ other movies, with a layer of digital falling snow filtered over it.

Even with the new movie on its way to production, Hellboy fans still can’t get Guillermo del Toro’s pair of films out of their heads. It’s disappointing that the director won’t get to finish his trilogy, but at least one of its stars has fully moved on.

So, two Hellboys and a comedian walk into a bar…

It was a bit of a bummer when we heard that Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy trilogy was not to be concluded after all, and even weirder when Hellboy creator Mike Mignola dropped the news that the series would be rebooted, and stranger still when none other than David Harbour was chosen to portray the character. It stands to reason that del Toro and Ron Perlman are pretty bummed, but Perlman recently told fans that he’s fine with the reboot, and happy for Harbour.

The fate of Hellboy has long been trapped in development hell, boy. Franchise director Guillermo Del Toro and star Ron Perlman were both interested in another installment, but legal complications made that tricky, then there was scheduling stuff, then the studio was being uncooperative, you name it. Del Toro said it was definitely gonna happen, then that it wouldn’t happen, then that it might happen, then that it probably wouldn’t but hey you never know, then that yes, there absolutely 100% will not be a Hellboy 3. And he’s holding true to those final words, because there won’t be a third chapter of his Hellboy franchise — as the new one’s gonna be a [deep breath] reboot.

While nobody would argue that Hollywood needs to make more movies about Hollywood, there does seem to be an opening for Hollywood to make more movies about the impact of movies in general. We spend hundreds (even thousands) of hours each year watching films, and yet, many of these movies don’t really explore the impact that movies themselves have on our lives and our culture. At the risk of getting a little too meta, a smart screenwriter might tackle the notion of how the movies affect the life of someone on the outside of the industry.

Hellboy III has practically joined the ranks of all those other sequels and ideas for movies and franchises that were rumored but never took off, either because of a lack of funds, or the actors or directors lost interest, or any number of other reasons. Guillermo del Toro has still remained enthusiastic about his Hellboy series — as he is about all of his other projects — and today he decided to see how many of his fans are still hoping for a third installment.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been releasing so many clips lately that you can almost watch the entire movie before its premiere without leaving your computer. Most of them have included information we already know or serve to introduce us to some of the beasts we’ll meet, but one of the new ones released today touches on a very important detail: the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald.

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.

It’s been an uncertain road getting there, but Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix Trollhunters is finally here. Straight from New York Comic-Con, check out the first official trailer for the December premiere, along with a brand-new poster.