Throughout his career, Ron Perlman has regularly collaborated with Guillermo del Toro – right from the director's debut Cronos, through Blade II, Hellboy, its sequel The Golden Army, and Pacific Rim. If there’s one project moviegoers everywhere want to see the duo tackle together, it’s the final instalment in their Hellboy trilogy, which they never had the chance to make – the powers that be instead choosing to reboot the franchise with last year’s critical and commercial dud.
Speaking to Empire in the Big-Screen Preview issue, Perlman confirmed that he hasn’t seen the 2019 reboot starring David Harbour. “It was none of my business,” he says of the film. “It would only provoke me into whatever things I didn’t need to add to my list of grievances.” Still, if the possibility arose of del Toro returning for a third film in his continuity, Perlman reaffirmed his desire to don the Right Hand of Doom once more. “If Guillermo were to wake up one day and say, ‘You know what Ron? We need to finish the trilogy,’ which is an idea that is near and dear to me, I’d be there in a heartbeat,” the actor says. “But without him I have no interest in donning the make-up again. And you know, I just turned 70. So I would actually go down in history as being the oldest superhero!”
For now, Perlman is set to reunite with del Toro in two future movies – the live-action Nightmare Alley, which the filmmaker was midway through shooting before Coronavirus halted production, and the animated Pinocchio he’s undertaking for Netflix. In that project, Perlman is lending his voice to theatrical puppet-master Mangiafuoco – and according to the actor, it’s going to be a very different take on a tale that most audiences associate with Disney. “I won’t say too much, but it will surprise everyone,” he promises. “No one’s ever seen this take on it. It’s an expose on fascism, and it’s quite powerful.”
Read the full interview in the Big-Screen Preview issue of Empire, on sale Thursday 9 July and available to order online here.