Hellboy Reboot's David Harbour Explains The Movie's Failure

This year's reboot of Hellboy has been one the year's most notable failures in Hollywood, generating only $40 million at the worldwide box office and receiving mostly negative reviews. There were reports last month that the movie suffered from a number of behind-the-scenes problems, including fights between producers and director Neil Marshall, and star David Harbour not being cooperative. Now Harbour has commented on its disappointing performance.

In an interview with Digital Spy, Harbour explained that much of the film's issues were out of his control. "We did our best, but there's so many voices that go into these things and they're not always going to work out," he said. "I did what I could do and I feel proud of what I did, but ultimately I'm not in control of a lot of those things."

Harbour went on describe the problem that all comic book movies have when compared to Marvel's output--and in doing so came up with the concept of the "the chocolate spectrum."

"The problem that I have with comic book movies nowadays is that I think, and it's a result of the power of Marvel stuff, it's like chocolate, it's a flavour," he said. "And I sort of want a world where there's more flavours than just comparisons to chocolate. So in that way when Hellboy is viewed on the chocolate spectrum, it does very poorly. That being said, it also has major problems.

"I think as a rental or as a movie that you see on an aeroplane, I think you'd be like, 'Oh that was fun' because it's a fun movie, and I think it was unfairly bludgeoned as a result of these comparisons."

Hellboy also starred Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim, Sasha Lane, and Thomas Haden Church. It followed two Hellboy movies directed by Guillermo Del Toro in the 2000s.

In related news, Harbour is set to reprise his role as cop Jim Hopper in Stranger Things Season 3, which hits Netflix in July. Check out the first clip from the new season, which was released last week.