50 Fun Facts About Hellboy

Which American writer-artist created Hellboy after drawing a demon for a convention booklet with the name on its belt?

Mike Mignola drew the snarling monster in 1991 with no plan to use it again, adding the name at the last minute because it made him laugh.

Which actor starred as Hellboy in the 2004 film, although studios turned the project down partly because he was cast?

Ron Perlman was the choice from the start: Hellboy's dialogue was written with his voice in mind before he had even been cast.

Which Mexican filmmaker wrote and directed the 2004 film Hellboy and its 2008 sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army?

Guillermo del Toro staged the action like a Ray Harryhausen monster film, in wide shots with almost no camera movement.

What is the name of Hellboy's oversized stone fist, the key that could unleash the apocalypse?

The Right Hand of Doom once belonged to an ancient spirit, and Hellboy keeps it attached because he fears what anyone else would do with it.

Which Stranger Things actor took over as Hellboy for the R-rated 2019 reboot of the film series?

David Harbour was suggested for the part by Hellboy's own creator and played the demon as younger and rougher, like a troubled teenager.

Which independent publisher, rather than Marvel or DC, has put out Hellboy stories since the character's 1993 debut?

Dark Horse Comics printed Hellboy's first story as a four-page black-and-white strip in a promotional issue limited to about 1,500 copies.

Which amphibious agent in Hellboy was found by workmen sealed in a tank beneath a Washington hospital?

Abe Sapien was found by workmen in 1978, sealed in a tank under a Washington hospital with a note dated the day Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

Which Hellboy character, taken in by the Bureau as a child after a deadly blaze, can start fires with her mind?

Liz Sherman is only a colleague in the comics: her romance with Hellboy was invented for the films.

What are the two circular, goggle-like shapes on Hellboy's forehead in both the comics and the films?

Filed-down horn stumps are all that is left because Hellboy has ground his horns away since he was a child, and keeps doing it as an adult.

Which real historical figure, supposedly long dead, leads the wartime ritual that brings the infant Hellboy to Earth?

Grigori Rasputin comes back from his 1916 murder in the comics and sells the Nazis an occult way to win the war while chasing his own apocalypse.

Which English actor played Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, the scholar who raises Hellboy, in the 2004 film?

John Hurt's professor dies far later in the story than he does in the comics, a delay chosen so that audiences would grow attached to him first.

In the name of the B.P.R.D., the agency that employs Hellboy, what does the letter P stand for?

Paranormal is the P in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, whose first director was the professor who adopted Hellboy.

Which animals does Hellboy keep by the dozen in his quarters at the Bureau in the 2004 film?

Cats share the room where the 2004 film keeps Hellboy shut away, so hidden from the outside world that the public treats him as an urban legend.

Which animation creator voices the German ectoplasmic medium Johann Krauss in Hellboy II: The Golden Army?

Seth MacFarlane replaced the first actor hired after the director decided the original voice clashed with the mechanical sounds of the character's suit.

Beneath which New York landmark is the secret troll market hidden in Hellboy II: The Golden Army?

The Brooklyn Bridge hides the market, which the team finds by tracking the swarm of creatures that devoured an auction-house crowd.

Which tiny creatures does the villain of Hellboy II: The Golden Army unleash to eat the crowd at an auction?

Tooth fairies here are a ravenous swarm, nothing like the bedtime-story visitor, and they are set loose to seize a piece of a crown that is up for sale.

Which actress plays Nimue, the Blood Queen, a sorceress cut to pieces and later revived in the 2019 film Hellboy?

Milla Jovovich described the Blood Queen as the mother of the monsters, and the film gives the character a much bigger part than the comics did.

In the 2019 film Hellboy, Hellboy learns that his human mother made him the heir of which ruler?

King Arthur's bloodline entitles Hellboy to the king's famous sword, which he refuses at first after a vision of himself causing the apocalypse.

Which folklore witch holds a lifelong grudge against Hellboy because he once shot out one of her eyes?

Baba Yaga lost the eye when Hellboy travelled to Russia to stop her kidnapping and eating children, and she never forgave him.

In a two-page Hellboy comic, which breakfast food does the young hero taste, making the demons of Hell mourn his loss?

Pancakes win young Hellboy over at the first bite, and the demons of Pandemonium wail that he will never come back to them now.

Which miniseries, the first to carry Hellboy's name on its cover, was loosely adapted into the 2004 film?

Seed of Destruction ran for four issues in 1994, and its artist-creator was so new to writing that an established comics writer scripted it for him.

For which annual fan convention was the very first Hellboy story printed in a promotional issue in August 1993?

San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 carried the four-page story, in which Hellboy runs into the god Anubis in an American ghost town.

What name do the 2004 film Hellboy and its sequel give to Hellboy's oversized revolver?

The Samaritan is built with iron from a church bell, though Hellboy admits he is a terrible shot and would rather fight up close.

Which creature performer plays three roles in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, including the Angel of Death?

Doug Jones also played the eight-foot doorkeeper of the elf court, working servo-driven extensions fitted over his own fingers.

Which sitcom star voiced the fish-man agent in the 2004 film Hellboy but refused to take a screen credit?

David Hyde Pierce turned down the credit, the press tour and the premiere out of respect for the actor who wore the suit on set.

Which exiled elf, played by Luke Goss, sets out to wake the mechanical soldiers in Hellboy II: The Golden Army?

Prince Nuada believes humans have driven magical creatures into hiding, and he asks Hellboy why a demon would fight on their side.

At which real coastal landmark do Hellboy and his team find the sleeping army in Hellboy II: The Golden Army?

The Giant's Causeway is where the badly wounded Hellboy is carried, and where the goblin smith who forged the army shows the team the way in.

In which country is the Hellboy short story The Corpse set, where Hellboy buries a body to win back a stolen baby?

Ireland in 1959 is the setting: the story reworks an old folktale, and the body has to be laid in consecrated ground before dawn.

Which body passed a special act in 1952 granting Hellboy honorary human status, a week before he joined the Bureau?

The United Nations made it official in August 1952, by which time Hellboy was already a celebrity who had been featured in Life magazine.

Which 1930s pulp vigilante, Hellboy's childhood hero, returns as a ghost to help him against the Conqueror Worm?

Lobster Johnson burned a claw symbol into the foreheads of the gangsters he killed, yet the public remembers him only as a character from pulp serials.

Which American author wrote the poem that gave the Hellboy miniseries Conqueror Worm its title?

Edgar Allan Poe's poem lends its name to a story about a Nazi space capsule coming back to Earth six decades after its launch from an Austrian castle.

Which director made the 2019 film Hellboy and later called it the worst professional experience of his life?

Neil Marshall said the producers took creative control away from him, and that there was nothing of him left in the finished film.

Which actor took the role of Ben Daimio in the 2019 film Hellboy after Ed Skrein withdrew over the character's heritage?

Daniel Dae Kim was cast a month after Ed Skrein stepped down on learning the comics character was Asian American, and he publicly applauded Skrein for it.

In the 2019 film Hellboy, Hellboy first appears in Tijuana facing a missing agent in which kind of contest?

A wrestling match in a Mexican ring ends badly: the missing agent has been turned into a monster, and Hellboy kills him by accident.

The one-eyed cave troll Mr. Wink in Hellboy II: The Golden Army was named after a dog owned by which cast member?

Selma Blair's dog had one eye, just like the troll, whose old wound has closed up the left side of his face.

Which Oscar-winning fantasy film did the director of Hellboy make between the 2004 original and its 2008 sequel?

Pan's Labyrinth won several Academy Awards, which gave the director the clout he needed to get the Hellboy sequel into production.

Which future Avengers star was offered the title role in the 2004 film Hellboy but turned it down?

Jeremy Renner said no because he felt no attachment to the comics, and Vin Diesel's name was also linked to the part at one stage.

Which FBI agent, assigned to Hellboy in the 2004 film, was created for the screen and never appeared in the comics?

John Myers is missing from the sequel, which explains that a jealous Hellboy had him transferred to Antarctica.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army earned a nomination at the 81st Academy Awards in which category?

Best Makeup was the nomination, fitting for a film that put its performers inside troll, elf and goblin suits and prosthetics.

Which established comics writer scripted the first Hellboy stories because their creator had never written a comic?

John Byrne scripted the debut miniseries and then stepped away, and Hellboy's first appearance in colour came in Byrne's own series Next Men.

Which actor plays Hellboy in the 2024 film Hellboy: The Crooked Man, the second reboot of the series?

Jack Kesy played a younger, wandering Hellboy in a folk-horror story that skipped American cinemas and went straight to video on demand.

Which American mountain region is the 1950s setting of Hellboy: The Crooked Man, a tale of backwoods witchcraft?

The Appalachians are where Hellboy meets a returning local who was initiated as a witch in his youth, a story written in tribute to pulp author Manly Wade Wellman.

Which late actor voiced Hellboy in the 2023 video game Hellboy Web of Wyrd, released after his death?

Lance Reddick recorded the part for a brawler built around the Butterfly House, an ancient ruin that guards the way into another dimension.

In which 2017 fighting game did Hellboy join the roster as a downloadable guest alongside Raiden and Black Manta?

Injustice 2 is a DC superhero brawler, so Hellboy arrived as a rare outsider, a route the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles followed in the next pack.

In Hellboy's first miniseries, Professor Bruttenholm is killed by a monster resembling which animal?

A frog monster kills the professor just after he resurfaces from a lost Arctic expedition, the first of thousands that the Bureau would go on to fight.

What are the imprisoned dragon-like beings that Hellboy's stone fist is said to have the power to set free?

The Ogdru Jahad appear in the comics as a seven-headed dragon locked away in deep space, and the 2004 film calls them the Seven Gods of Chaos.

In the Hellboy comics, which flowers sometimes sprout where Hellboy's blood is spilled, a sign of his good nature?

Lilies grow from his blood, and the same power is what finally brings a burned-out world back to life at the very end of the saga.

Which creature in the 2004 film Hellboy lays eggs so that it can be reborn and multiply every time it dies?

Sammael first strikes at a museum, and the hunt for its nest then takes Hellboy and a team of agents down into the sewers.

What was the code name of the Nazi occult programme whose 1944 ritual brought the infant Hellboy to Earth?

Project Ragna Rok looked like a failure to the Nazis at the ritual, because the child it summoned appeared miles away in front of Allied soldiers.

Which Nazi assassin in the 2004 film Hellboy shuts down his own cyborg body to trick the Bureau into taking him in?

Karl Kroenen is an occult scientist hidden behind a gas mask in the comics, and the film's director reimagined him as an undying assassin.