11 Movies Too Big To Fail (That Did Anyway)
5. Hellboy (2019)
2004 saw popular Dark Horse comic Hellboy get the big screen treatment, with Ron Perlman starring. Its positive reception spawned a 2008 sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which was equally well regarded by critics and fans alike.
And then, all went quiet.
Fast forward to 2019, and the franchise gets an unexpected reboot, with both Perlman and director Guillermo del Toro stepping away from the franchise. Following in Perlman's footsteps isn't an enviable task, but when it was announced that David Harbour of Stranger Things fame was cast in the title role, it was met with tentative excitement.
Upon Hellboy's release, however, it became evident that Harbour's performance was the highlight of a film that was otherwise panned by critics.
It became apparent that Del Toro and Perlman's choice to move away from the project was due to Hellboy creator Mike Mignola's choice to write the movie himself, instead of allowing Del Toro full creative control.
It's the sort of messy Hollywood nonsense that we always hope doesn't affect the end result, but inevitably the movie just wasn't as good as it deserved to be.
It failed to earn even half of its $50 million budget, and has already been all but forgotten.