10 Insane Reasons Actors Didn’t Return for Sequels

Though not quite reaching the lofty numbers of big-screen actors like Batman, Hellboy has been brought to life by multiple people across three different iterations of the franchise. However, though there may be three Hellboys, there is to this day only one Abe Sapien.

Yes, the character may have been fruitlessly teased at the end of Neil Marshall's reboot in 2019, but only Guillermo del Toro has utilised the character properly. Doug Jones provided the body for Abe, undergoing extensive make-up and prosthetics as he has done so many times across his career, but the first movie saw the character voiced by David Hyde Pearce.

Much like with Darth Vader, who had two different actors for his body and his voice in 1977, Jones provided the on-set voice for the character before Hyde Pearce came into a studio to record his version of the dialogue. At this point, the Frasier actor immediately questioned his own use in the role, since he believed Jones had done admirable work in the first place. So much so that he refused a credit in the film, did no press events, and attended no screenings out of respect for Jones who did "all the hard work".

Hyde Pearce took this one step further when offered the chance to reprise the role in Hellboy: The Golden Army, as he outright declined the offer to allow Jones to play the role in its entirety, body and voice. You just don't see this kind of selflessness in Hollywood too often.