Did Guillermo Del Toro Really Put A Star Wars Homage In Hellboy 2?
While the Troll Market in writer-director Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy" sequel "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" seems awfully familiar to the Mos Eisley cantina from 1977's "Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope," the filmmaker has clarified whether the fantastical setting of the scene is actually a homage to the iconic location from the galaxy far, far away.
Of course, one of the many reasons "Star Wars" became a classic sci-fi blockbuster is the film's inventive Mos Eisley cantina, which is the setting of the fateful meeting between Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness), Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). The seedy establishment is loaded with a lot more beings, though, including various races of alien villains. It's also the place where the confusing Han Solo and Greedo timeline begins, which doesn't end well for the Rodian bounty hunter (because, at least in the first version of the film, Han shot first).
During an interview about "Hellboy 2" with the Australian site Female, del Toro made it clear that while he was aware that the population of various creatures in the film's Troll Market is reminiscent of the "Star Wars" cantina scene, it wasn't deliberate. Recalling his conversations with "Hellboy" creator Mike Mignola, del Toro explained to the publication what set his film's sequence apart from the landmark "Star Wars" scene.
"Well, actually that was Mike's fear more than anything. Every time we came to the Troll Market Mike was [hums 'Stars Wars' tune]," del Toro told Female. "I said, 'No' and we shot it completely different from that."
Guillermo del Toro viewed his creatures as extras
In short, Guillermo del Toro essentially flipped the script on the approach George Lucas took with his cantina scene in "Star Wars" for his "Hellboy II" sequence. Sure, there are colorful characters and even a bit of music and merriment in del Toro's Troll Market, but the action largely focused on Hellboy (Ron Perlman), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), and Johann Kraus (Seth McFarlane) interacting with various characters. "Instead of doing a close-up of creatures that we had, I treated them like extras in the background," del Toro told Female.
In addition, del Toro stressed the lengths that he went to make sure the focus wasn't on the various alien species. "If you look at the movie ever again, you'll see a creature called the Strider, which are three large elephant-like creatures with long legs like the elephants from the knee and no head walking past the archway," del Toro told Female, noting that only one actually appears. "I said I will shoot it completely different from the Cantina scene ... like we really wandered into a real place, and I will use creatures that cost thousands of dollars to pass by and we did."
Sadly, the filmmaker's extra efforts to separate the Troll Market scene didn't get a large enough audience to notice when "Hellboy II" initially hit theaters. Since the film was released a week before "The Dark Knight," del Toro knew "Hellboy II" wouldn't last long at the box office.