Guillermo del Toro’s <em>Frankenstein</em> Already Looks Like a Masterpiece

No one loves monsters like Guillermo del Toro. At long last, the director of Cronos, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and the gorgeously animated Pinnochio takes on the ultimate monster of gothic fiction: Frankenstein. And we don't necessarily mean the walking hulk with bolts in his neck.

At Tudum 2025: The Live Event in Los Angeles, the streaming giant released a slew of teasers and first-look previews at upcoming movies like Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and new seasons of One Piece, Wednesday, and Stranger Things. But most haunting of them all was Frankenstein, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro and based on Mary Shelley's seminal 1818 novel. At Tudum, a full cast list was announced along with the first trailer. A specific premiere date is still not known, only that it will arrive on Netflix in November 2025.

The new movie stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, who is described in the official plot summary as "a brilliant but egotistical scientist" who "brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment." Jacob Elordi of Euphoria fame stars as the aforementioned creature, who is by far one of the most famous monsters in popular culture.

Netflix's trailer has all the familiar touches of a del Toro joint: rotting mansions, chiaroscuro lighting, and the auteur's endless fascination with beasts. "What manner of creature is that?" asks an unknown man, "What manner of devil made him?" A frozen Oscar Isaac, as Victor Frankenstein, says with a potent hint of regret, "I did."

As the preview for Frankenstein continues, we're treated to a scene where Victor climbs up his roof to harness the power of lightning—replicating an iconic moment in horror film history—and the movie promises: "ONLY MONSTERS PLAY GOD." It's easy to pick up what the movie's putting down: No matter how big and scary Elordi may be, the real monster is Victor Frankenstein, for having an unholy vision.

Co-starring with Isaac and Elordi are Mia Goth as Victor's fiancée Elizabeth, Christoph Waltz, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Charles Dance, and Ralph Ineson as "Professor Krempe."

Del Toro has long dreamed of adapting Frankenstein, saying it was a movie he "would kill to make" back in a 2007 interview with Joblo. In 2008, del Toro expanded on his vision for a Frankenstein movie in an interview with Empire. "What I'm trying to do is take the myth and do something with it, but combining elements of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein without making it just a classical myth of the monster," del Toro said. "The best moments in my mind of Frankenstein, of the novel, are yet to be filmed."

Years later in 2016, after many starts and stops that included the ill-fated Dark Universe getting in the way of production, del Toro again commented on his vision for Frankenstein. "Frankenstein to me is the pinnacle of everything, and part of me wants to do a version of it, part of me has for more than 25 years chickened out of making it," he told Den of Geek. "I dream I can make the greatest Frankenstein ever, but then if you make it, you've made it. Whether it's great or not, it's done. You cannot dream about it anymore. That's the tragedy of a filmmaker."

Finally, del Toro's dream is realized, and it's coming to Netflix. In 2018, while on stage for accepting the Best Director BAFTA for The Shape of Water, del Toro thanked Mary Shelley. "The most important figure from English legacy is, incredibly, for me, a teenager by the name of Mary Shelley, and she has remained a figure as important in my life as if she were family," he said. "And so many times when I want to give up, when I think about giving up, when people tell me that dreaming of the movies and the stories I dream are impossible, I think of her."