Guillermo del Toro is the king of gothic horror and classic monster cinema, renowned for hits like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. Now, he’s back with a new masterpiece—Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which is easily one of the fall’s most anticipated releases. Given the director’s gift for visual storytelling through uncommon artistry evoking entrancing beauty and feeling, there’s no doubt his film will both mesmerize and move us, but how true to the classic will it be?
Here is everything you need to know about Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming film Frankenstein.
The Plot of Frankenstein
If you think you know how del Toro’s Frankenstein is going to play out, think again. You should know better, especially with this award-winning fantasy filmmaker.
The epic monster horror follows the brilliant but egotistical Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He’s a mad scientist of sorts, obsessed with unlocking the secrets of generating life, who assembles a being from random human body parts. The result is The Creature, whose very existence evokes the question of what it truly means not just to be human but also to be half of a whole—creator and creature, father and son—craving love, seeking understanding, and yearning for human connection.
As The Creature animates, Victor quickly loses control, not just of his experiment but his own mind.
The Cast
The role of the brilliant but tragically flawed Dr. Victor Frankenstein is played by Dune’s Oscar Isaac, while Jacob Elordi, of Saltburn, voices and plays The Creature.
Scream queen Mia Goth, of the X horror film series, tackles two roles: Elizabeth Lavenza, the fiancée of Victor’s younger brother, as well as Victor’s late mother, Claire, who dies during childbirth. Additionally, Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) stars as Harlander, Harry Potter’s David Bradley stars as the Blind Man, and Charles Dance, of The Day of the Jackal, stars as Leopold Frankenstein.
The Trailers
The teaser and trailer for del Toro’s Frankenstein work together to help provide us with some crucial information about this gothic horror classic. It appears the movie is going to give us the perspectives of both Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. While the film’s teaser trailer depicts the story from Frankenstein’s perspective, the first full trailer (above), which premiered on October 1st, is narrated by The Creature, who has clearly evolved from the grunting beast we met in 1931’s Frankenstein.
The trailer is grand and visually lavish, showing us the monster’s inception during a lightning storm, along with what looks to be an intimate moment with his brother’s fiancée. It also shows us a stranded ship in the Arctic, where Victor and his creation are in conflict with one another. All The Creature wants from his creator is love and acceptance, and when things don’t go his way, he attacks an ice-bound ship and its entire crew.
“If you will not allow me love, then I will indulge rage,” The Creature says, setting the film’s emotionally driven tone by leaning into the philosophical dialogue the author originally steeped her creation in.
The monster’s voice alone tells us we’re in for a profound exploration of humanity—what defines it, what our responsibility is towards any life we bring into existence, and how one can find peace between its monstrous exterior and its deeply human interior.
The Monster
The appearance of Elordi’s monster has been kept tightly under wraps, most likely to preserve maximum on-screen impact upon the film’s release, and we get it. Netflix did release a first-look image back in August (below), and it speaks volumes.
Even if we didn’t know our monster displayed intelligence, we’d have a sense of the human composite’s deeply empathetic capacity and ability based on that photo. It’s clear in its eyes that there is so much more depth to it beyond just being a grunting, mindless beast.
Moreover, we also know The Creature will be struggling to reconcile with the actions of his creator in order to heal a painfully emotional wound. The many ways in which del Toro will portray that remain to be seen, but are expected to be poignant works of art that affect the core of your soul. Also, because del Toro is a stickler for old-fashioned craftsmanship, look for hand-made details over digital effects and AI, allowing for a much more authentic experience.
One thing’s for sure: del Toro’s monster is expected to defy expectations as both a thing of beauty and a work of art.
Is del Toro’s Frankenstein a True Adaptation?
Yes and no. While del Toro’s film will reorient Frankenstein to its originally intended moral core—i.e., The Creature’s point of view, it will also take creative liberty and go a step further to explore it from a different perspective that forces you to wonder who the real monster in this story is.
Based on the latest trailer, del Toro’s adaptation looks to be close to resembling Mary Shelley’s hit 1818 novel, but we’ll have to wait and see if it lives up to the challenge. It does have the advantages of using modern technology to provide a visually stunning, practical-effects-driven retelling. Everything that happens in the trailer appears to fall in line with the original masterpiece and places The Creature’s desperate struggle for identity at the forefront, right where it belongs.
Del Toro’s Vision: What to Expect
Guillermo Del Toro is no stranger to writing misunderstood, deeply complex characters, but Frankenstein may be his boldest approach to date—he’s completely shifting the narrative’s focus. In previous adaptations, The Creature has been more of an afterthought. Here, it will be placed front and center to function as the story’s lead character and beating heart. As such, you can expect to see Dr. Frankenstein cast in more of a villainous role than that of a misunderstood scientist.
“Mary Shelley’s masterpiece is rife with questions that burn brightly in my soul: existential, tender, savage, doomed questions that only burn in a young mind and only adults and institutions believe they can answer,” del Toro explains in this Netflix Tudum article. “For me, only monsters hold the secrets I long for.”
We’ll also see both Frankenstein and The Creature aiming to provide answers to the philosophical questions posed by their search for meaning in a demented world, but that’s not all. Del Toro also told Tudum that he wants viewers to feel the anxiety evoked in the novel, “The anxiety that you get when you’re an adolescent, and you don’t understand why everybody lies about the world,” del Toro said.
The director aimed to capture that anxiety on an intensely visceral level as he reframed the relationship between creator and creation around responsibility and consequences, likely drawing heavily on his inherent gift for empathetic monsters to restore the beast’s eloquence.
At a Tudum event earlier this year, del Toro called the film “the culmination of a journey that has occupied most of my life… Monsters have become my personal belief system. There are strands of Frankenstein throughout my films.”
Frankenstein isn’t just about science gone wrong. It’s about the human condition and the capacity for forgiveness and understanding, and about finding beauty in the tragically flawed and hideous. Given the filmmaker’s historical success with creature-based narratives and their intricate explorations of creator-creation relationships, hopes are high that this could be an adaptation that does proper mythological justice to Shelley’s original ideas.
Del Toro’s lifelong passion project, 25 years in the making, earned the longest standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, coming in at a full 13 minutes, leaving him, Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, and other cast members in tears.
When and Where to Watch Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein will premiere in select cinemas on October 17, 2025, before arriving globally on Netflix on Friday, November 7, 2025. The film’s runtime comes in at two hours and 29 minutes.
Frankenstein
- Release Date
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October 17, 2025
- Runtime
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149 Minutes
- Director
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Guillermo del Toro
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