Ron Perlman is as inextricably linked to the role of Hellboy as Hugh Jackman is to Wolverine. That was an important part of why the Hellboy reboot featuring David Harbour as the wise-cracking demonic superhero failed to click with audiences. In an interview, Perlman reveals he had the option of returning for a third Hellboy film, which he turned down.

"The only thing that's stopping the third Hellboy film is the fact that Guillermo [del Toro] is one of the busiest guys in the business. He couldn't do it with all the stuff he's got lined up even if he wanted to. The two films had nothing to do with one another."

"The reboot was something I had the opportunity to participate in and decided that the only version of Hellboy I'm interested in is the one I do with Guillermo and so in walking away from it, I truly walked away from it, and haven't seen it or heard much about it. I wished them well, but it was not in my bailiwick."

While Ron Perlman is seen as the face of the Hellboy movies that debuted in 2004 and 2008, it was Oscar-winning director Guillermo Del Toro who was the chief architect of the world that Perlman inhabited so well as Hellboy. Those movies were a labor of love for Del Toro, and it is understandable why Perlman would not want to return to the franchise if the acclaimed director was not able to come back to finish the trilogy.

It is also understandable why Del Toro chose other projects over making a third Hellboy movie. While loved by fans, his Hellboy movies were critically divisive, and did not make much of an impact at the box office. Earlier this year, the filmmaker had publicly shared the struggle it had taken to get the movies made, back when good superhero movies were still very rare.

"The first 'Hellboy' movie was developed before even X-Men was on film. I remember visiting the 'Mystery Men' set to try to convince Universal to green light it. It languished for a long time. To my mind, the first 'Blade' was instrumental in showing how superhero movies could exist at the end of the 20th century. There was a collision of 'Dark City' and 'Blade' that somehow, in subtle ways paved the way for 'The Matrix' to explode into the world. But, still, back then it was a countermovement to try and do superhero films, specially with material that didn't have Marvel numbers."

While Perlman has moved on from Hellboy, he continues to be good friends with Del Toro and made an appearance in the filmmaker's ode to Kaiju movies, Pacific Rim. The actor will next be seen in Run with the Hunted, to be released On Demand on Friday, June 26. The movie tells the tale of Oscar, a young boy who is forced to take a life and run away from his hometown. 15 years later, a private investigator named Birdie, played by Perlman, is tasked with finding Oscar and uncovering the secrets of the past. This news arrives to us from ComicBookMovie.com.