Netflix - Tudum 2025 : Frankenstein : Guillermo del Toro’s Dream Project Finally Comes to Life

By Mulder, Los Angeles, Kia Forum, 31 may 2025

It was a moment that long-time fans of both classic literature and genre cinema had waited over two decades for. When the first teaser trailer for Frankenstein dropped during Netflix’s Tudum 2025 event, it wasn’t just another streaming release being teased — it was the unveiling of a lifelong dream nurtured by visionary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro Gómez. The brief but hauntingly poetic teaser offered only glimpses into the story — fog-laden landscapes, shadow-drenched laboratories, and flickers of anguished faces — but it was more than enough to signal a deeply personal and artful interpretation of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s timeless tale. With del Toro’s signature gothic flourish and unmistakable sense of melancholy, Frankenstein promises to be more than just an adaptation — it’s a cinematic exorcism of the director’s deepest creative obsessions.

The road to this moment was anything but straightforward. In fact, the journey of Guillermo del Toro Gómez’s Frankenstein is itself a saga worthy of myth. As early as 2007, Guillermo del Toro confessed to being haunted by the story, describing it as the pinnacle of everything he aspired to make. He envisioned a Miltonian tragedy, far removed from traditional horror — a tale that captured not just the monstrous and tragic aspects of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel, but its aching existential void. The best moments in my mind of Frankenstein, of the novel, are yet to be filmed, he once said. The very idea of filming it seemed to paralyze him creatively, because once it was made, the dream would end. For years, his ambitions collided with studio politics, creative shifts, and even global strikes. Still, he kept returning to it, sketching designs, casting actors like Douglas Jones and Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch in his imagination, and citing influences ranging from William Henry Pratt (known professionally as Boris Karloff) to Bernard Albert Wrightson’s iconic illustrations.

It wasn’t until Guillermo del Toro Gómez’s collaboration with Netflix blossomed — culminating in the Oscar-winning Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio — that his vision was finally greenlit. The stars aligned in the wake of that success. With Netflix investing heavily in auteur-driven genre cinema, Frankenstein was reborn. The cast alone reads like a masterstroke of curated talent: Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada as the tormented Dr. Pretorious, Jacob Nathaniel Elordi — who stepped in for Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch’s original replacement Andrew Russell Garfield — as the Creature, and Mia Gypsy Mello da Silva Goth, Felix Kammerer, Christoph Waltz, Charles Walter Dance, Lars Dittmann Mikkelsen, and David John Bradley rounding out a cast that promises as much psychological depth as visual flair. The tone was further clarified when Guillermo del Toro Gómez stated that this would not be a horror film per se, but a deeply emotional exploration of identity, abandonment, and creation. Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat, who also collaborated with del Toro on The Shape of Water, described the score as lyrical and emotional, underscoring the film’s philosophical core rather than leaning on traditional horror cues.

Set in 19th-century Eastern Europe, Frankenstein will follow Dr. Pretorious on a journey to find the elusive Frankenstein — long believed to have perished in a fire four decades earlier. Pretorious’s obsessive mission: to revive the late doctor’s experiments and reignite the question of what it means to create life from death. While the synopsis evokes echoes of The Bride of Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro Gómez has been clear: this is not a simple retelling. Rather, it is a hybrid — part homage, part reinvention — that integrates the soul of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s text with new dramatic stakes and fresh philosophical questions. Dan Laustsen’s cinematography, if the teaser is any indication, will play a central role in immersing viewers in a world that is at once lush, bleak, and overwhelmingly gothic.

The Tudum 2025 presentation leaned into this rich atmospheric tension. Despite the teaser’s brevity, it left audiences visibly shaken and intrigued. Fans who were lucky enough to be present described the footage as utterly entrancing, a blend of chiaroscuro visuals and heart-wrenching performances. Many pointed to Jacob Nathaniel Elordi’s Creature — shown only in fragments — as the emotional anchor of the film. It’s a far cry from the stitched, lumbering monster of past incarnations; this version seems more human than ever before, a being caught between tragedy and transcendence. The decision to cast Elordi — known for his emotionally charged roles — suggests Guillermo del Toro Gómez’s desire to explore the Creature’s inner life with devastating nuance.

One cannot overlook the timing of the project either. Coming off the industry-changing impact of the SAG-AFTRA strikes and a growing public appetite for intelligent genre filmmaking, Frankenstein arrives at a moment where audiences are craving mythic stories that resonate on an emotional level. Guillermo del Toro Gómez, never one to follow trends, has ironically found himself perfectly aligned with the zeitgeist. His film — produced by Double Dare You! and set for a simultaneous global release on Netflix in November 2025 — stands to redefine how we see both the character and the genre.

Looking back at Guillermo del Toro Gómez’s decades-long flirtation with Frankenstein, it becomes clear that this is more than just a movie. It’s the culmination of a cinematic obsession, one that’s matured alongside the filmmaker himself. In a world where classic stories are often remixed for shallow spectacle, Frankenstein stands out for its promise of depth, poetry, and thematic weight. Del Toro doesn’t just want to remake Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel — he wants to excavate its soul. As we count down the months until its release, it’s hard not to feel like we’re about to witness the most personal monster movie ever made. For Guillermo del Toro Gómez, Frankenstein isn’t just a film — it’s the dream he’s dared to stop dreaming.

Synopsis :
Eastern Europe, 19th century. Dr. Pretorious sets out in search of Frankenstein, who was believed to have died in a fire forty years earlier. His goal is to continue the experiments of the monster's creator, Dr. Frankenstein.

Frankenstein
Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro
Based on Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
Produced by Guillermo del Toro, Gary Ungar, Scott Stuber, J. Miles Dale
Starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz
Cinematography : Dan Laustsen
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Production company : Double Dare You!
Distributed by Netflix
Release date : November 2025 (United States, France)