Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein gets a trailer from Netflix

Netflix has dropped a trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s next movie, Frankenstein.

This will be del Toro’s first film since 2022’s Pinocchio, and will arrive on Netflix in November.

Will it also have a cinema release? While there has been speculation Frankenstein will be one of the few Netflix movies to come to IMAX, alongside Greta Gerwig’s Narnia, no cinema release has been confirmed by Netflix.

Guillermo del Toro did say Frankstein will have a “theatrical run,” though, posting on Bluesky in November 2024.

Despite being a familiar, household name-grade story, Frankenstein is a highly personal project for del Toro.

“This film has been on my mind since I was a child — for fifty years. I’ve been trying to make it for 20 to 25 years,” Guillermo del Toro said earlier this year during a Next on Netflix event.

“Over the decades, the character has fused with my soul in a way that it has become an autobiography. It doesn't get more personal than this.”

While the trailer contains familiar beats from Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein story, Guillermo del Toro’s take on the classic gothic tale is reportedly inspired by a very particular take on it — that of Bernie Wrightson.

Frankenstein | Guillermo del Toro | Official Teaser | Netflix - YouTube

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Wrightson worked on an illustrated edition of the book, which was published in 1983. It features intricate black and white pencil drawings by the artist, who also co-created Swamp Thing, another of Guillermo del Toro’s favourite characters.

Frankenstein stars Oscar Isaac as Dr. Frankenstein, and Jacob Elordi as his monster. Other key cast members include burgeoning horror icon Mia Goth as Elizabeth and Christoph Waltz as Harlander.

The film wrapped filming in September 2024, and this is not the first time del Toro has tried to get a Frankenstein film up on screen.

He got to the pre-production stage around 15 years ago with Universal, before the project was canned.

“He unveiled a head and shoulders bust of me with this monster makeup built on it. It was like, honestly, my eyes welled up,” frequent del Toro collaborator Doug Jones told Collider back in 2020.

“It was so hauntingly beautiful, and it did pay reverence to Bernie Wrightson’s artwork and gave you a different-looking Frankenstein’s monster than what you’re used to.”

Are we going to get a similarly fresh take on Frankstein with this Netflix adaptation? The trailer suggests the monster will be no contemplative weakling, but by now we can trust Guillermo del Toro to come up with something interesting at the very least.

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