David Harbour blames Guillermo del Toro fans for Hellboy reboot flop

David Harbour believes his Hellboy reboot flopped because fans love Guillermo del Toro's movies so much.

The Shape of Water director helmed 2004's Hellboy and its 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, both starring Ron Perlman, and while he planned to complete a trilogy, the third film was eventually scrapped.

The Stranger Things actor replaced Perlman in Neil Marshall's Hellboy reboot, which was a critical and commercial flop when it was released last year.

Discussing the movie in an Instagram Live this week, Harbour insisted the film never stood a chance because fans of the character and Del Toro's films were against the reboot from the outset.

"I think it failed before we began shooting because I think that people didn't want us to make the movie," Harbour said. "Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman created this iconic thing that we thought could be reinvented and then (fans) certainly - the loudness of the Internet was like, 'We do not want you to touch this.' And then we made a movie that I think is fun and I think had its problems but was a fun movie and then people were just very, very against it and that's people's right but I learned my lesson in a lot of different ways."

The 44-year-old, who will soon be seen in Marvel's upcoming movie Black Widow, previously told reporters at London's MCM Comic-Con last year that the film had "major problems" but it was "unfairly bludgeoned as a result of (the) comparisons" to Marvel movies.

"We did our best, but there's so many voices that go into these things and they're not always going to work out," he added. "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."