Hellboy is getting an R-rated reboot with Stranger Things star in leading role

Big red is coming back to the big screen in a planned R-rated reboot of the Hellboy series. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola confirmed the news on Facebook, specifying that the reboot would be directed by Game of Thrones director Neil Marshall, and star David Harbour — best known for his role as Stranger Things’ Jim Hopper — as the titular demon.

Negotiations are reportedly ongoing between producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin, who own the rights to the films, and movie studio Millennium, but the end product is set to be an R-rated refresh. Mignola himself is reportedly helping to write the new movie, which has the working title Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen.

The first two Hellboy movies paired director Guillermo del Toro and star Ron Perlman, whose craggy face and rumbly voice were an ideal fit for the cynical, cigar-smoking antihero. Neither is connected to the new project, The Hollywood Reporter says, after del Toro’s attempts to secure a bigger budget for a third movie were rebuffed. The director confirmed as much in February, when he said that his vision of another sequel would not happen.

There’s no release date set for the reboot, but the casting choices should be something of a positive for fans of the comic. Harbour looks like he could be a good replacement for a rougher, gorier, and scarier Hellboy, sharing Perlman’s burly physicality and gravelly voice.