Entertainment
How A Superhero Sequel Dumped By Disney Became Hulu's Biggest Hit
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Superhero movies aren’t as big as they once were, with Marvel’s latest, Captain America: Brave New World struggling to surpass the box office of Antman and The Wasp: Quantumania, but even then, the fall of Hellboy, from big-budget Guillermo del Toro production to an afterthought tossed onto Hulu, is astonishing. Yet, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, the fourth film in the series, starring the third actor, Jack Kesy, to portray the demonic good guy, debuted as the Number One film on Hulu in 2025.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man is the most direct adaptation of Mike Mignola’s comic yet, and even a low-budget film with cheap effects can’t keep a good story down. If you haven’t seen it, now is the time.
A Different Type Of Demon
Hellboy: The Crooked Man is not a globe-trotting adventure like the other films starring Ron Perlman and David Harbour, instead, it’s set in the forests of Appalachia in a small town filled with witches and haunted by a dark presence. Hellboy and rookie B.P.R.D. agent Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph), a character not found in the original graphic novel, get wrapped up with Tom (Jefferson White) a soldier coming home to confront the The Crooked Man (Martin Bassindale) and reconcile with his witchy ex-girlfriend. Tom explains that the demonic entity provides power for a steep price, and though this is a younger version of the hero since the film is set in 1959, the B.P.R.D. agent knows a thing or two about contracts with demons.
The local coven of witches, disciples of The Crooked Man, gets involved, while Reverend Nathaniel Watts (Joseph Marcell) lends his blessings to the good guys. As with every good Hellboy story, The Crooked Man culminates in a final battle in a decaying, gothic structure as threats both real and imagined engulf the heroes. It’s a satisfying, fairly comic-accurate story that has delighted most of the fans of the original series, but it is by no means perfect.
No Budget, No Problem
Right from the opening scene on board a train, you can tell that Hellboy: The Crooked Man will not be nearly as visually interesting as del Toro’s two films. Everything looks washed out, and if you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was a mid-2000’s SyFy original movie. To say that the film is carried by the strength of the dialogue, parts of which are word-for-word from Mignola’s comic, is an understatement, and that’s before The Crooked Man himself makes an appearance.
Martin Bassindale plays the monster of folklore with the right amount of creepiness, accented by the sounds of bones cracking and readjusting whenever he moves, but it’s hard not to imagine how much better he would have looked with anything resembling a budget behind the film. Shot on the cheap by director Brian Taylor (director of Crank, Gamer, and creator of the bonkers detective series, Happy), Hellboy: The Crooked Man has the look and feel of a fan film, in the best way possible, and was clearly a labor of love for the source material and not an attempt at another blockbuster. It was destined to be a streaming hit, and thankfully for fans of the B.P.R.D., that’s exactly what it is today.
Not only is Hellboy: The Crooked Man proof that a scaled-back superhero film can work if expectations are kept in check, it’s also a love letter to the off-beat supernatural gothic comic that never quite hit the mainstream. The film has more in common with Evil Dead than it does Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, but thanks to everyone giving it their all, it’s one of Hulu’s best movies, and if the streaming numbers impress the right people, there’s a chance it could even relaunch the dormant franchise.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man debuted at number one on Hulu, but it’s now available to rent on services like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
Entertainment
New Samsung Galaxy smart glasses reportedly leaked
Like Apple and Google, Samsung is working on launching its first pair of smart glasses, and a new leak claims to provide a clear look at the design, price, and launch timeline.
Android Headlines published two new images of the Galaxy Smart Glasses, and the site says, “The design in the images you see is based on real-life pictures of a testing unit of these smart glasses.”
If this leak is correct, the Galaxy smart glasses will feature two 12MP cameras but no display. Android Headlines reports that the glasses, codenamed Jinju, will be announced in 2026 with a price between $379 and $449 in the United States.
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Unlike augmented reality glasses, which include a heads-up or built-in display, the Jinju smart glasses would feature dual 12MP cameras for content creation and AI features. Android Headlines reports that the Samsung Galaxy smart glasses will feature heavy Gemini integration, which is no surprise.
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Google announced its own upcoming AI smart glasses at Google I/O in 2025, and teased the new products in a blog post late last year. Both Google and Samsung’s glasses will run on the new Android XR platform, which also powers the Samsung Galaxy XR headset. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about Google’s glasses at the upcoming Google I/O 2026 event.
Android Headlines also claims that Samsung is working on a second pair of display smart glasses under the codename Haean, which will be announced in 2027 and cost up to $900. We’ve known about the Haean glasses since 2025, when the project first leaked. Jinju and Haean are the names of historic locations in South Korea and translate roughly to “pearl” (Jinju) and “coast” (Haean).
Based on these descriptions, the upcoming Samsung glasses would compete directly with Meta Ray-Ban and Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, as well as the upcoming Google Android glasses. While the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses use a monocular waveguide display, the Samsung Haean glasses will reportedly use a micro-OLED display, per Android Headlines.
For fans of augmented reality and smart glasses, 2026 is shaping up to be a big year.
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Augmented Reality
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Entertainment
Snap up the best deals on Monster portable speakers
SAVE UP TO 50%: As of April 28, get the Monster Cube 1 Portable Bluetooth Speaker for $19.98, down from its usual price of $39. That’s a discount of 50%. Alternatively, get the Monster Ripple Portable Bluetooth Shower Speaker for $24.97, down from its usual price of $39.99. That’s a discount of 38%.
$19.98
at Amazon
$39.99
Save $20.01
$24.97
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$39.99
Save $15.02
The warm weather and sunny days of summer are almost upon us, and if you plan on spending a lot of time outside, no doubt you’ll want to take your favorite music with you to share it. Or maybe you just want a way to listen to your tunes in the shower. That’s where a portable speaker comes in handy. Right now, Monster has you covered right now with two deals you won’t want to miss.
As of April 28, get the Monster Cube 1 Portable Bluetooth Speaker for $19.98, down from its usual price of $39. Alternatively, get the Monster Ripple Portable Bluetooth Shower Speaker for $24.97, down from its usual price of $39.99. That’s a discount of 38%.
The Monster Cube 1 is a waterproof option that’s perfect for listening at home, on the go, or anywhere you want to have some kicking tunes. It’s a compact speaker with 12W output that’s lightweight and portable. It boasts 20 hours of battery on a single charge, and it provides plenty of loud, satisfying audio no matter where you end up: camping, a pool party, or hanging out in the living room where you want to have portable audio.
Alternatively, the Monster Ripple is a circular shower speaker built to let you listen while scrubbing up for the day. With waterproof IPX8 protection, it’s a round, compact spaker with a 15W driver that can fill the entire room, not just the shower, with satisfying sound. It also has a lanyard to secure the speaker to wherever you want it in the shower to avoid any drops or accidents.
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If you’re ready to pick up a speaker for less right now, don’t sleep on these Monster deals, which will keep you tuned in throughout the season and longer with their portability and waterproof features.
Entertainment
The best robot pool vacuum deals to spring clean your pool for swimming season
The best robot pool cleaner deals at a glance:
Stepping into the backyard when you own a swimming pool should feel like a mini vacation. But that’s far from the truth in most cases. Instead of floating carelessly in the sun, many pool owners spend their summer days chasing stubborn piles of sand, leaves, sunken debris, and bugs in their pools. It’s time to hand off the cleaning chore to a robot — and these three robot pool cleaner discounts will help you seal the deal.
With up to $500 in savings, these deals from top robot pool vacuum brands Aiper, Beatbot, and iGarden can help you get your outdoor oasis ready for swimming season while keeping some money in your pocket.
$899.99
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Why we like it
Mashable’s sister site CNET (also owned by Ziff Davis) consistently selects Aiper’s products for its best robot pool cleaners list. The Scuba V3 is one of the brand’s most popular models for good reason. It packs adaptive intelligence, ultra-fine filtration, and convenient waterline parking, and as of April 28, it’s on sale for $500 off — its lowest price to date. The built-in AI camera can analyze your pool and detect over 20 debris types, then navigate directly to it and eliminate it. The V3 can also create autonomous weekly cleaning schedules by analyzing your pool size, the real-time weather forecasts, and cleaning history. It ensures a consistently clean swim with very low manual effort on your part.
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$799
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Why we like it
Ideal for pools up to 2,260 square feet in any shape or material, the Beatbot AquaSense is a versatile robot vacuum for your pool with 5,500 gph of suction and three hours of runtime. As of April 28, it’s down to $799 at Amazon — its best price ever. It packs an ultra-fine filter to sift out fine sand and debris, as well as a 2×2 brush system, 200W pump, and three motors to ensure powerful scrubbing along the floor, walls, and waterline. It may not have as many built-in AI conveniences as the Aiper Scuba V3, but its 15 sensors and intelligent path optimization ensure it precisely maps your pool, optimizes the cleaning path, and avoids obstacles. You can also customize cleaning schedules and details in the app.
$399.99
at Amazon
$699.99
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Why we like it
If you’re looking for a more budget friendly option, the iGarden KN Series is down to a best-ever price of $399.99 at Amazon. That’s 43% off its list price. Of course, for that price, you won’t get as many bells and whistles as the other pool vacuums on this list. It can run for up to 210 minutes per charge and thanks to three high-efficiency motors, delivers suction up to 17,000 LPH. It packs smart 3D navigation and supports three cleaning modes with LED guidance: green for floor-only, blue for full coverage, and purple for walls a waterline first, then floor. It’s a bit more hands-on than the other robot vacuums, but is still powerful and customizable enough to fit most pools.
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