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
NYT Pips hints, answers for May 2, 2026
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.
Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.
Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.
How to play Pips
If you’ve ever played dominoes, you’ll have a passing familiarity with how Pips is played. As we’ve shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible — and common — for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.
Here are common examples you’ll run into across the difficulty levels:
-
Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.
-
Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.
-
Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.
-
Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.
-
Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.
If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for May 2 Pips
Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 6-3, placed horizontally; 3-4, placed horizontally.
Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 3-4, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed horizontally.
Less Than (6): Everything in this space must be less than 6. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for May 2 Pips
Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 0-3, placed vertically.
Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally.
Mashable Top Stories
Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally
Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed vertically.
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 2-6, placed vertically.
Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically; 5-6, placed vertically.
Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-6, placed vertically.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for May 2 Pips
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 4-5, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically.
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-3, placed vertically.
Number (15): Everything in this space must add up to 15. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally.
Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 3-4, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed vertically.
Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 6-6, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically; 1-3, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-5, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed horizontally; 3-4, placed horizontally; 1-3, placed horizontally; 0-3, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally.
Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally; 0-3, placed horizontally; 0-1, placed horizontally.
Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
New rules for the Oscars: AI actors are out of the race
The Academy won’t be handing over the golden statuette to robots anytime soon.
In new rules announced May 1, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has ruled that AI performances are not eligible for an Oscar. Filmmakers can still utilize AI tools in their submitted works, but only human actors and human-authored screenplays will be considered for the body’s highest honors.
The move aligns with AI agreements won during the 2023 Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA strikes and addresses growing tension over the presence of generative AI tools across artistic industries.
Mashable Top Stories
For example, a recent trailer for the upcoming historical adventure film As Deep as the Grave, featuring an entirely AI-generated recreation of the late Val Kilmer, caused widespread furor among fans who recoiled at the on-screen digital likeness. Prior to his death, Kilmer created an AI version of his speaking voice with UK tech company Sonantic. Other celebrities, like Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine, have worked with AI company ElevenLabs to clone their voices, as well.
But while some celebs are getting ahead of their AI counterparts, others are fighting back against nonconsensual deepfakes writ large. Pop star Taylor Swift recently filed for trademark of her voice and image — including the phrase “Hey, it’s Taylor.” — amid a surge of synthetic AI likenesses of her proliferating across the internet, including ones used in data phishing scams.
The Academy announced additional rule changes for international film and acting categories, generating buzz online after several contentious Oscar campaign races in recent years. For non-English films, a country can now have multiple nominated entries instead of the previous limit of one. Similarly, actors can receive multiple nominations in the same category if their performances rank in the top five.
Topics
Artificial Intelligence
Oscars
Entertainment
Instagram will stop recommending accounts that dont post original content
Serial Instagram reuploaders are about to be hit hard in the algorithm, as the platform announces new content ranking guidelines intended to boost original content creators.
Accounts that primarily aggregate content or repost others’ content without meaningful alterations or additions won’t be recommended to other users, Instagram explained in a recent Creators blog post. The platform announced the same algorithmic guidelines for Reels uploads in 2024. Now they’ll apply to photos and carousel posts, too.
“Original content” is defined as “work that you wholly created or reflects your unique perspective,” Instagram explains. That includes original photos and designs, as well as third-party content that is materially edited by the user. “Some examples include adding unique text on the content itself that provides more context than just describing what’s happening, adding creative graphics that offer new information, or using our remix feature to transform the original,” the blog post reads.
Mashable Light Speed
The platform recommends that accounts that frequently reshare content share other users’ posts to their stories, use the repost button, or enable collab posts to avoid being marked ineligible.
Aggregator accounts that are marked ineligible for recommendations under the new guidelines can regain their place in the feed by pivoting to original posts. Instagram says “most” of an account’s posts, carousels, and reels need to feature original content over a 30-day period to have the decision reversed. Users can also remove unoriginal content and appeal the decision.
NHL roundup: Sabres win playoff series for first time in 19 years
Cubs stay hot, edge Diamondbacks in series opener
