Four years after Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army came out. Bigger, bolder and more del Toro than its predecessor, it concentrated on its existing characters and introduced a more complex and interesting antagonist in the dedicated, skilled warrior Prince Nuada - fighting for the survival of his dying race as humanity continues its greed and desire to consume everything around it.

Influences of Tolkien and del Toro's other famous works are apparent throughout, as is the lack of the occult and horror elements of the previous movie. This time, we have tooth fairies, trolls and elves to deal with, not to mention the small matter of 4900 golden mechanical indestructible robots.

There will never be a day I don't lament the fact we will never see this trilogy come to fruition with a third Hellboy movie, but boy, am I glad we got Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. In a world of superhero and comic book movies, these stand out independently and together as some of the most original, beautiful and interesting adaptations of their source material.

While Peter Briggs did not co-write the sequel to Hellboy, he features once again to talk about the spin-off he was asked to write that ultimately never materialised: Hellboy: Silverlance. Thanks to Peter for permitting me to include this.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Hellboy II: The Golden Army! You can get in touch on

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My website is at https://verbaldiorama.com

Thanks to the following for their contributions to this episode:

Massive thank you to the wonderful Peter Briggs, co-writer of Hellboy (2004) @ThePeterBriggs for being involved in this episode and for telling us all about the proposed spin-off Silverlance!.

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Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song

Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe Facebook

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