The ‘Hellraiser’ Reboot Film (Coming To Hulu) Has Found Its Pinhead With A Gender-Bending Twist

Everything’s coming up Pinhead. That’s an exaggeration, obviously, but it is spooky season with seasonally-appropriate content flowing on streaming, and two new Hellraiser projects are on the horizon, one being a David Gordon Greene series for HBO and the other being an entirely separate Hulu film coming from Spyglass Media Group (and Sundance-acclaimed director David Bruckner of The Night House), which has characterized the project as (via EW) as “a loyal, yet evolved reimagining.”

Part of that evolution, or so it seems, is that Pinhead is now apparently a woman, although that only applies to the film. Via Hollywood Reporter, casting news reveals that the iconic villain will be portrayed by Jamie Clayton (The L Word: Generation Q and Sense 8). Here’s a few more casting tidbits:

The new Hellraiser is coming off of wrapping production and Spyglass on Thursday revealed the cast. Odessa A’zion is starring alongside Clayton in the movie that will debut on Hulu some time in 2022. Also in the cast are Brandon Flynn (13 Reasons Why), Goran Visnjic (The Boys), Drew Starkey (Outer Banks), Adam Faison (Everything’s Gonna Be Okay), Aoife Hinds (Normal People), Hiam Abbass (Succession), and Selina Lo (Boss Level).

Yep, there’s no reason why the leader of the ritualistic, torture-loving, extra-dimensional Cenobites can’t be a woman. This reimagined film’s expected to be based upon Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart which was, of course, the basis of the 1987 film. Thus far, the franchise includes nine official films, in addition to the upcoming HBO series and the Spyglass-Hulu film. Notably, Barker is involved with the film, although he (at least previously) isn’t involved yet with the HBO series.

Yep, reinvigorated horror franchises are all the rage, given the (relatively) recently successful Halloween franchise, and as they say, the bowels of Hell are so hot right now.