From Nosferatu: a symphony of horror by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau to Alejandro Amenábara’s The Others, Gothic Horror has a great tradition in cinema history. In 2025 the genre will get a revival. Guillermo del Toro, the spirit behind Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and the Shape of Water, is working on an adaptation of Frankenstein for Netflix – Mary Shelley’s visionary novel.
In recent years, Gothic Horror has experienced a revival, with Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria and the Nosferatu by Robert Eggers who free up the road. Not to mention the Saltburn or Yórgos Lánthimos by Emerald Fennell, who clearly play with Gothic aesthetics. What is more, the bride of Maggie Gyllenhaal and an adjustment of Wuthering Heights of Fennell are in the pipeline.
Del Toro’s adjustment from Frankenstein marks his third collaboration with Netflix. The Mexican director has already made two projects for the streaming giant – an animated retelling of a fable about Pinocchio and Cabinet or Curiosities, a horror anthology mini -series.
Guillermo del Toro writes, directs and co-produces the Frankenstein film, and here is everything we know about this dark story.
When is Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein released?
The film premiered on Netflix November 2025However, the exact date has not yet been announced.
Frankenstein is the passion project of Del Toro. The director called it for the first time in 2008 and admitted that he had dreamed since his childhood to adjust Mary Shelley’s novel. At that time he noticed that it would not be a loyal adjustment, but a retelling of the classic story.
I don’t “Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.” I do an adventure story that concerns the being. I can’t say much, but it’s not the central creation story, I’m not worried about that. The fact is that I dreamed of making a ‘Frankenstein’ film since I was a child. The only thing I can promise is, compared to Kenneth Branagh, I will not appear shirtless in the movie!
In 2022, Guillermo del Toro unveiled in 2022, in an interview for podcast from Variety Awards:
Well, I work on a monster film; I can’t say the title because it can change and I could eventually make something else. But at the moment I am writing and designing. And we have had in recent years. Hopefully it will be the next, but everything can happen.
In October 2023, during the conversation with Collider, the director officially announced that he is working on the Frankenstein film for Netflix:
I do Frankenstein. We are working on it, we are starting to photograph on it in February. It is a film that I have wanted to do for 50 years since I saw the first Frankenstein and I had a revelation and is actually a film that requires a lot of growth and many tools that I could not have done 10 years ago, 20 years ago and now I am brave or crazy enough or something and we are going to tackle it.
What is the Plot of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein about?
Frankenstein; Or, the modern Prometheus is a famous Gothic novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818. The story was developed as part of a friendly writing competition that the British author had with beloved and future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Polidori and Lord Byron while he was in Switzerland.
The novel, considered an early example of Science Fiction, tells the story of the young man Victor Frankenstein. After the death of his mother, obsessed with alchemy and modern science, he tries to create artificial life. With the help of body parts and electricity, Victor makes a monstrous being that he leaves in panic after it is awakened in the lab.
For now it is unclear how Trouw del Toro has adjusted the famous novel. The official logline for the film reads:
Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts the classic story of Mary Shelley of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but selfish scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to both the creative and his tragic creation.
Netflix
Who plays in Frankenstein of Guillermo del Toro?
The cast of Frankenstein is an impressive line-up. The crazy scientist Victor Frankenstein is depicted by Oscar IsaacThe best known for its versions in Ex Machina, in Llewyn Davis and Dune. The creature is played by Jacob ElordiOne of the most popular young actors known for euphoria, Saltburn and Priscilla.
The horror cast includes Mia GothThe best known for the horrort bid of Ti West, X, Pearl and Maxxxin, but also for the disturbing Infinity Pool by Brandon Cronenberg and Emma, a charming adaptation of the novel by Jane Austen.
The film also contains Charles Dancewho became famous for his representation of Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones, and Christoph WaltzKnown for his roles such as Hans Landa by Inglourious Basterds and Dr. Schultz in Django Unchained.
In the film you can also see Felix Kammerer (all silent on the Westfront), Lars Mikkelsen (Sherlock, The Witcher, Ahsoka), Christian Conury (Sweet tooth) and David Bradley (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, The Harry Potter films).
Is there a trailer for Frankenstein from Guillermo del Toro?
Not yet, but we expect that the first teasers of the film will appear in the coming months.
The films of del Toro are famous for their unique visual style and combine the grotesque with gore and poetic beauty. The director wants to combine fairy tales with gothic horror and his stories with religious motifs and mythical tropics intensively. He is also a big fan of practical special effects.
Even in less successful films, Del Toro has provided stunning visuals. So we look forward to the trailers, who will give us a taste of the coming miracles.
