Without doubt, to many genre fans the biggest news story of the week is the announcement that Hellboy is getting a cinematic reboot with Neil Marshall to direct and David Harbour to star. While plot details are obviously being kept hush-hush for now, screenwriter Andrew Cosby has given fans an indication of what we can expect from this rejig.

Speaking to Silver Screen Beat, Cosby says that the reboot will be a “darker, more gruesome” take on the character when Hellboy makes his way to the big screen once again.

As Cosby explained, “I can’t really talk about specifics with regard to the story, which they’re keeping a pretty tight lid on at the moment, but I can say that this is a darker, more gruesome version of Hellboy. Neil said from the very beginning that he wanted to walk a razor’s edge between horror and comic book movie, which was music to my ears, because that’s what I was shooting for in the script, and precisely what Mignola does so well with the comics. Honestly, everyone has just been working overtime to bring that Mignola magic to the big screen. The script is done, but work will continue as we move forward, always trying to make it the best it can be.”

One of the few details we know about this new take on a comic book favourite so far is that Cosby has been working on the screenplay with Christopher Golden and original creator Mike Mingola. In addition to this, the current working title is Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen. As mentioned, The Descent’s Neil Marshall is on directing duties, with Stranger Things’ David Harbour taking over the title role from Ron Perlman.

As a comic book character, Hellboy debuted back in 1993. A demon drawn from Hell by crazy Nazi types during the closing moments of World War II, he’d end up becoming a part of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense and raised by Prof. Trevor Bruttenolm. Throughout his years in action, Hellboy has battled (and usually bested!) countless eerie demons and evil doers, often with the help of the likes of Abe Sapien and Lobster Johnson.

In terms of big screen shenanigans, Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy was released in 2004 and took home just under $100 million worldwide as it won a whole heap of praise from many quarters. The 2008 follow-up, Hellboy: The Golden Army, topped that by taking $160 million from a budget of $85 million. And since that 2008 picture, fans and critics alike have been hoping to finally see the third leg of del Toro and Perlman’s trilogy. As it stands, that now won’t be happening, which is hugely disappointing to hear but, if we’re honest, it’s something we’ve all been expecting. That said, Marshall has proven his salt over the years with efforts such as Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Doomsday and more recently with his work in TV on the likes of Constantine and Westworld. As for Harbour, he’s seen his star rise thanks to his excellent turn in the first season of Netflix’s Stranger Things. It may not be del Toro, it may not be Perlman, but there’s certainly enough talent involved here to make this new take on a beloved hero work.

As ever, expect more on this as and when we get it.