Hellboy: Ian McShane Reveals Key Character Details

After a couple takes via Guillermo del Toro, fans are eager to see how director Neil Marshall shapes his Hellboy reboot starring Stranger Things’ David Harbour in the titular role. However, one other big aspect of the lore is Professor Broom, Hellboy’s adoptive father, who will be played by American Gods’ Ian McShane. In a recent interview, McShane revealed that this new movie will explore a different dynamic between the duo.

In Del Toro’s movies, we saw Hellboy accepting that Broom, who found the demon and raised him from a child, was his father. McShane said this relationship will now be dissected in a new light. “You don’t start with the birth of Hellboy… but the relationship between [Hellboy and Broom] is quite crusty,” he said to Fandom. “Does he trust his father? [Hellboy asks], ‘Why didn’t you kill me? I’m a monster.’ It’s a little bit of a psychological battle against Hellboy.”

“There’s one important moment in [the film] when [Hellboy] sort of thinks he’s fighting his own people, the outsiders. So, he’s being used by the insiders, which is me, if you like,” he continued. This teases that the film isn’t going to start off with birth of Hellboy like the 2004 movie, with McShane hinting that Marshall’s flick may even go further back in time and deal with Broom’s origins and the early days of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

As for Broom’s character, McShane maintained that he wanted to pay homage to the late John Hurt, who played Broom in Del Toro’s movies. “I’m sort of playing this part as a slight homage to John [Hurt]. I mean, I’m not playing it like him, obviously… but the relationship [with Hellboy] is very much the same.”

Directed by Neil Marshall and starring David Harbour in its title role along with Ian McShane as Trevor Bruttenholm, Milla Jovovich as Nimue, The Blood Queen, Sasha Lane as Alice Monaghan and Penelope Mitchell as Ganeida, Hellboy comes to theaters Jan. 11, 2019.