Deadpool star Jack Kesy says he didn’t feel any pressure taking on Hellboy in new version: “The supporters, the haters, bring them on”

Hellboy is getting reinvented once again in the new reboot, Hellboy: The Crooked Man. Based on one of Mike Mignola’s best comics, the R-rated movie casts a new leading man as the iconic demon, Jack Kesy.

He follows in a long line of stars playing the character, including Ron Perlman and David Harbour. However, the Deadpool 2 star says he didn’t feel pressure from the previous performances stepping into the role.

“You know what, I love a good challenge, I’ve always been like that so I was excited to take it on,” he told GamesRadar+ at San Diego Comic-Con. “Everyone, the supporters, the haters, whoever, bring them on. You know it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You always get an opportunity to play people similar to yourself but when do you get a chance to be in full prosthetic, playing iconic characters? The excitement topped everything.”

The only weight he felt was doing justice to the beloved character. “Just excitement and a little bit of creative pressure, like, ‘How am I going to do this?’ I’ve never worked in prosthetics,'” he continued. “But we collaborated with the director [Brian Taylor] and it was one day at a time, one scene at a time.”

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is based on the limited series of the same name written by Mignola. Set in rural Appalachia in the ‘50s, the new reimagining sees Hellboy stranded in a community haunted by witches, all under the power of a local devil called The Crooked Man.

Kesy wasn’t familiar with the comic book history of the character, but he told us he’s been welcomed by fans with open arms. “[I was] definitely not a comic book guy but I definitely learned on the job and I had fans reach out to me right away and they’ve been telling me things that I didn’t know about comic books.”

He added: “I love the Hellboy fans. I’ve actually known them now for over a year, I still write them back mostly through some social media and they send me little facts and little photos and just little stuff that I may have overlooked. I’m excited with them.”

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is due to be released in 2024. For more upcoming movies, check out our breakdown of 2024 release dates and new superhero movies on the way.