Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein': Netflix unveils trailer of 'Pan's Labyrinth' director's take on Mary Shelley classic

Guillermo del Toro's fascination with monsters and strange creatures continues with Frankenstein, the most iconic and mother of all creature origin stories. Mary Shelley's seminal novel, which was adapted numerous times for the screen, is getting another interpretation through the lens of del Toro, the right candidate for a subject of this kind, considering his successful track record with acclaimed horror-tinged films that delved into the fantastic and surreal like Pan's Labyrinth, Cronos, Blade II, and Nightmare Alley.

Netflix released the first trailer of the film starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as his terrifying creation, at the Netflix Tudum Live Event on May 31. Isaac opens the trailer with the lines: “Some of what I will tell you is fact. Some not. But it is all true.” As the trailer ends with the chilling introduction of the veiled creature who wreaks havoc on a ship, we hear Frankenstein's line, "In seeking life, I created death."

A dream project of Del Toro for ages, Frankenstein is expected to feature every trademark of the visionary filmmaker who has been known for infusing his work with references to classics from literature and cinema. An avid cineaste with a voracious appetite for books and movies, del Toro has often toyed with the idea of man's creation of monsters or man's evolution into a monster. He won the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture for The Shape of Water, in addition to the Best Animated Feature Oscar for Pinocchio.

Interestingly, Del Toro has cited the 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein and its 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein as two of his favourite films. In 2018, while accepting his Best Director BAFTA trophy, he called Mary Shelley an important figure and inspiration for him as a creator.

“The shadow of English culture has loomed large in my life. But the most important figure from [the] English legacy is, incredibly for me, a teenager by the name of Mary Shelley," he said. "She has remained a figure as important in my life as if it was family. And so many times, when I want to give up, when I think about giving up, when people tell me dreaming of the movies and the stories I dream of is impossible, I think of her. Because she picked up the plight of Caliban and she gave weight to the burden of Prometheus, and she gave voice to the voiceless, and presence to the invisible, and showed me that sometimes to talk about monsters, we need to fabricate monsters of our own. And parables do that for us.”

At the Cannes Film Festival in May, del Toro del Toro told Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat that his take on the monster would be more sympathetic. "Somebody asked me the other day, does it have really scary scenes? For the first time, I considered that. It’s an emotional story for me. It’s as personal as anything. I’m asking a question about being a father, being a son… I’m not doing a horror movie — ever. I’m not trying to do that.”

Aside from Oscar Isaac ("Inside Llewyn Davis") and Jacob Elordi ("Priscilla"), the film also features Christoph Waltz ("Inglorious Basterds"), Mia Goth ("X", "Pearl"), Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, and Charles Dance ("Game of Thrones"), among others.

Frankenstein will be hitting Netflix in November 2025. Del Toro's Pinocchio was also released on Netflix. 

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