David Harbour Compares 'Hellboy' Remake To Chocolate As A Way Of Talking About Why It Failed

By Chris EvangelistaMay 28, 2019 12:30 pm EST

Remember the Hellboy remake? It's okay if you don't, because everyone seemed hated it, and it bombed at the box office. Now, a few months removed from the release date, star David Harbour is opening up about the film's failure. Sort of. In an attempt to remain diplomatic, the actor has compared Hellboy to chocolate, offering a somewhat muddled analogy.

We all like David Harbour. He's been a dependable character actor for years, and his memorable work on Stranger Things helped make him an even bigger star. In addition to that, he seems like a genuinely nice guy. So I take no pleasure in the fact that Harbour's first movie as a leading man, Hellboy, ended up being such a dud. Sure, the idea of rebooting Hellboy without Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman was a bad idea to begin with, but I also want only good things for Harbour.

While speaking at MCM Comic-Con in London (via Digital Spy), Harbor attempted to explain the failure of his Hellboy by comparing the movie to chocolate. I think. Honestly, it's hard to make heads or tails of what Harbour is saying here:

"The problem that I have with comic book movies nowadays is that I think, and it's a result of the power of Marvel stuff, it's like chocolate, it's a flavor. It's like chocolate, it's a flavor. So everybody goes 'Chocolate is delicious and these guys make the best chocolate.' So as you judge the movies, it's like, 'Well, it's not as chocolaty as this; this does not taste like chocolate at all.' And I want a world where there's more flavors than just comparisons to chocolate. So in that way, when Hellboy is viewed on the chocolate spectrum, it does very poorly."

Harbour also tried to explain that the movie ended up the way it did because of some behind-the-scenes problems:

"We did our best, but there's so many voices that go into these things and they're not always going to work out. I did what I could do and I feel proud of what I did, but ultimately I'm not in control of a lot of those things."

That lines-up with a report published right before the movie was released, revealing that Hellboy's numerous producers (16 in total) clashed frequently about the direction of the film, and that Harbour and director Neil Marshall didn't really get along.