Guillermo Del Toro's New Fantasy The Buried Giant Casts Ron Perlman For Hellboy Reunion

Published May 12, 2026, 1:57 PM EDT

The actor and del Toro have a long history of working together, which began with 1993's Cronos. They reconnected almost a decade later for Blade II before reuniting again on Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pacific Rim, Nightmare Alley and Pinocchio.

Outside of his work with del Toro, Perlman has a wide-ranging film resume that includes roles in The Adventures of Huck Finn, Police Academy: Mission to Moscow, Alien Resurrection, Star Trek: Nemesis, Tangled, Don't Look Up and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

His time as the titular Hellboy wasn't just contained to del Toro's two films. He also voiced the character in two animated projects: Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron.

On the small screen, Perlman played Vincent in the CBS series Beauty and the Beast, Josiah Sanchez in the Western The Magnificent Seven and Clay Morrow in the crime drama Sons of Anarchy.

His next project, The Buried Giant, which is based on Kazuo Ishiguro's 2015 book of the same name, tells the story of a couple named Axl and Beatrice, who live in a version of England in which people are unable to maintain their long-term memories. Dennis Kelly, who wrote Matilda the Musical, is working with del Toro on the script.

There is no release date yet for The Buried Giant, with del Toro explaining that it will "take us years" to make because "it's incredibly difficult" to create a stop-motion film. He chose to use this particular medium for the same reason he did so with Pinocchio, which won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.

"If you do a live action Pinocchio and all of a sudden a puppet walks through, it becomes uncanny valley," he explained. "Just like if you do a live-action movie about an old couple crossing a landscape full of trolls and fairies, and there are special effects and actors."

Just like he has a history with Perlman, del Toro also has a strong working relationship with Netflix, which released his movies Pinocchio and Frankenstein, as well as the TV shows Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, 3Below: Tales of Arcadia, Wizards: Tales of Arcadia and Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities.

Now del Toro is back at Netflix for his next fantasy film that brings the Hellboy star back into the fold for yet another collaboration with the award-winning director.