TVPast Forums - MIKE MIGNOLA TALKS HELLBOY SEQUEL

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola confirmed that Agent John Myers will not return for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

Myers, played by Rupert Evans, was a character created by writer/director Guillermo del Toro for the first film.

"He said in a such freak-show circus we needed a regular guy so that the audience had somebody they can relate to and somebody who could discover this world, the stand-in for us as the audience," Mignola said. "So that was the device. Now that we've gotten into that world, we don't need him.

"He just didn't fit into the story. We worked on getting him in there. But it would have been the case where he was the young naive guy, can we come back to that guy five years later where he's turned into a bit more of a street-wise agent? For whatever reason, it didn't quite fit.

"And we did want to bring in other characters from the comic. You can only deal with so many other characters."

The film, from Universal Pictures, will begin principal photography in April in Budapest and London, with pre- and post-production based in London. It is scheduled for a summer 2008 release.

Ron Perlman returns as Hellboy for The Golden Army. Mignola noted that Perlman possessed a unique physical gift that made her perfect for the role.

"Guillermo originally switched the stone hand to the left hand because you're dealing with, usually, a right-handed actor," Mignola said. "And if you put that hand -- which he can't use -- on his right hand, then he's going to look awkward doing other stuff left-handed.

"And then he really wanted to do it as the right hand. And then we discovered that Ron is left-handed, so that's great.

"But now, the right stone hand is going to look awkward if he punches because he's punching with his bad hand. Except that Ron is left-handed but his father taught him to do all sports right-handed. Ron was mutantly created to be Hellboy."