Hellboy: Rise Of The Blood Queen - 8 Things It Must Do Differently From Del Toro's Films
4. The B.P.R.D. Need To Feel Threatening
Dark Horse
In the del Toro-verse (coining that now), the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence were presented much like their comic book counterparts, but, it must be said, without their more sinister inflections. In the films, Abe's introduction to the organisation was described as being relatively painless, whereas the comic book version of the organisation held the him for experiments. Roger the Homunculus (the guy with the hooks next to Hellboy) even had a Suicide Squad-esque bomb device placed inside him incase he disobeyed an order while on active duty.
Indeed, the organisation in the Mignola series straddles more of a moral grey area than the one depicted on film, and it's because of the above reason that Hellboy eventually leaves the group during the events of Conquerer Worm.
A more sinister Bureau would certianly make for a more interesting dynamic onscreen, and would make for a great source of tension if Blood Queen takes place when Hellboy's still an active agent. Fail that, however, then it's clearly a series made for Netflix. No one would pass on an opportunity to see Abe again, especially after seeing that suspiciously Hellboy-looking trailer for del Toro's Shape of Water.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
