Doug Jones confirms that Abe Sapien is not in Hellboy reboot and clarifies that cameo offer

Last month, Doug Jones told The Hollywood Reporter that he was offered a cameo in Neil Marshall's upcoming Hellboy reboot, but had to turn it down because of scheduling conflicts with Star Trek: Discovery.

And during a more recent appearance on the I Could Never Be podcast, the genre actor/master of prosthetics clarified his earlier statements while also confirming that Abe Sapien (his character from the two del Toro live-action Hellboy movies) is definitely not going to show up in the film.

"He will not be showing up, I'm told, in this first Hellboy reboot, which is fine for now. I don't have to watch someone else do the role for now, and that's a way to ease into it," said Jones.

Pivoting to his THR comments, he wanted to make it clear that he didn't turn down the Hellboy reboot cameo out of spite that Guillermo del Toro would not be involved. Indeed, it was a combination of two more innocuous factors.

"The Hollywood Reporter article, I think was written with a bit of a slant to... I think that the headline says, 'Doug Jones says no thanks to the new Hellboy,' right? And that sounded evil. That sounded to me like me going, 'No thanks, don't want your stupid movie.' Not even close," he explained.

"I was offered a cameo in the movie, yes — not to play Abe Sapien. It was another character creature thing. And I couldn't do it because of my Star Trek schedule... I had also injured my shoulder, which I didn't really talk about out loud that much. And, it was a very physical role that I would not be healed enough to do it by the time that rolled up. So, between Star Trek and my shoulder, I couldn't do it. But then the articles were written with a slant of, like, 'Oh, he's probably just being nice because he's, you know, he's so loyal to Guillermo del Toro and they're not making a Hellboy 3... It was that narrative [they] put into it and I did not ever say any of that."

Written by Andrew Cosby, the new Hellboy sees David Harbour (Stranger Things) take up the role of Anung Un Rama (originally made famous by Ron Perlman), a devil-looking demon summoned to Earth via a Nazi experiment during World War II. The film co-stars Ian McShane (Professor Trevor Bruttenholm), Mila Jovovich (Nimue the Blood Queen), Daniel Dae Kim (Ben Daimio), Sasha Lane (Alice Monaghan), and Thomas Haden Church (Lobster Johnson).

Hellboy will be summoned into theaters everywhere from the deep depths of the fiery underworld on April 12. And yes, Jones has no qualms about watching it.

"Absolutely I'm going to go see it and I wish them well," he added. "You know, reboots are a reality of Hollywoodland, right? Of course, right? Yeah, so, it was inevitable that this would happen and, at some point with something I was in. I will absolutely watch the new one... Like I said, I still have friends involved with it, so I wish them well, absolutely."

For SYFY WIRE's own in-depth interview with Jones on his long-spanning genre career, click here.