Exclusive: Jack Kesy Cast As Hellboy In New Reboot Movie
Baywatch actor Jack Kesy will play Hellboy in the upcoming Hellboy film.
Update: This Giant Freakin Robot exclusive was confirmed, and Jack Kesy is playing Hellboy in Hellboy: The Crooked Man.
Actor Jack Kesy will play the comic book icon Hellboy in the latest attempt to reboot the franchise for the big screen. According to our trusted and proven sources, the Deadpool 2 actor will play a younger version of Mike Mignola’s most popular character, in contrast to Ron Perlman and David Harbour’s relatively experienced take on the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense agent. It has only been a few years since the last reboot of the franchise, but Millennium Media must have high hopes this time around.
Jack Kesy has a relatively low profile compared to the other actors that have played Hellboy, which makes this quite the level-up for him. Kesy might be best known for his brief role in Deadpool 2, in which he played the X-Men villain Black Tom Cassidy; while his character was apparently supposed to be a significant supporting character, it was rewritten to be a relatively brief appearance.
Jack Kesy (in addition to his upcoming role as young Hellboy) has also appeared in the Baywatch movie with Dwayne Johnson and Alexandra Daddario and the recent Tom Clancy adaptation Without Remorse alongside Michael B. Jordan. On the television side of things, he had a larger role in Guillermo del Toro’s vampire horror series The Strain and the hustler comedy series Claws with Niecy Nash. All in all, it seems that Jack Kesy has been putting in his time as a supporting actor and looks to leap to a starring one with Hellboy.
That might be a bit of a gamble, however. While the Hellboy franchise has plenty of name recognition and a devoted fan base, it also seems that the fans have never really gotten over the loss of Ron Perlman as the title character. Perlman starred as Hellboy in two films by Guillermo del Toro in 2004 and 2008 and was set for another to conclude the trilogy until it was shut down, apparently due to funding issues. To many fans, Ron Perlman simply is Hellboy and every new film without him is a stinging reminder of that lost movie (which the actor still seems to be up for).
Presumably, Jack Kesy and Millenium Media are hoping to avoid the debacle that was 2019’s Hellboy reboot, which starred David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, and Ian McShane. The film underperformed at the box office and was unable to live up to the Guillermo del Toro movies (at least in the eyes of critics); apparently, its failure affected the Stranger Things star so much that he had to make a call to Ryan Reynolds to ask advice for dealing with a high-profile flop.
The Jack Kesy Hellboy film will reportedly ignore the preceding movies (i.e., a hard reboot) and will be written by creator Mike Mignola, a first for the franchise. It is said to be adapting the 2008 The Crooked Man miniseries and will take place in the Appalachian Mountains in the 1950s. Good luck to Jack Kesy and shaking the Hellboy curse.
