There is one person we all call when things go wrong in certain situations. For Emmy nominee David Harbour, that person turned out to be Ryan Reynolds who consoled Harbour during a period he described as a “tough experience”, referring to the Hellboy reboot which bombed at the box office.
In 2019, Neil Marshall made a Hellboy reboot of the original franchise which included the 2004 movie and 2008 sequel by Guillermo del Toro. However, the film in which Harbour played the lead role as the crime-solving detective with demonic roots was a failure at the box office. Critics derided the film as it struggled massively upon its release both domestically and globally. It grossed just $21.9 million at the domestic box office and its global appeal only doubled that figure.
In the aftermath of this showing, Harbour says he reached out to Reynolds for advice on how to handle a film that had failed to deliver. Per GQ, Harbour recalls what he said to Reynolds:
“I know him a little bit. I called him and I was like, Hey man, I just need to know something. You know Green Lantern? Huge flop for you. What the fuck is that like, because I think I’m going to hit that right now. Am I gonna be okay? Am I gonna survive this?”
Harbour confirmed that Reynolds was “sweet” about the experience, but it remained a difficult situation for him given how much he was invested in the project. He says:
“It was a very difficult experience because I wanted a lot out of it. I really like [Mike Mignola, Hellboy creator], I like that character. And then immediately when it began, even when it was announced, I realized that people did not want that character reinvented. I was very naive and optimistic about what we were going to do.”
While the film was still in production, it suffered from a host of setbacks which ranged from fast-tracked rewrites, conflicts among staff members, and even walkouts from members of the cast. The film tried to be too true to the comics from which it was adapted with great attention paid to the violence and not the storytelling. It made just above $12 million in its first week and had a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 15%.
Harbour has, however, gone on to enjoy a bit more success with his return to his starring role in Netflix’s Stranger Things, and the MCU’s Black Widow. Some of his other credits include The Equalizer, Black Mass, and Suicide Squad.