The monster is alive — and so is Guillermo del Toro’s long-gestating dream. Netflix unveiled the first teaser trailer for the Academy Award-winning filmmaker’s adaptation of Frankenstein at Tudum 2025, and it’s as gothic, grand, and goosebump-inducing as you’d expect.

Introduced by the film’s star Jacob Elordi via a pre-recorded message, the teaser debuted during Netflix’s annual global fan event. The stage was soon graced by del Toro himself, alongside cast members Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth, who shared their experience working on the highly anticipated project.

Del Toro, who has been obsessed with Mary Shelley’s novel since childhood, spoke candidly about the emotional and artistic journey that brought him to this moment. While Frankenstein has echoed throughout his past work — from Hellboy’s tragic creatures to the magical reanimation of Pinocchio — this marks his first full dive into Shelley’s foundational tale of horror and humanity.

The trailer opens with Oscar Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein saying: “Some of what I will tell you is fact. Some is not. But it is all true.” That line sets the tone for the trailer and the film: ambiguous, philosophical, and deeply emotional.

Elordi’s Creature looms in shadows, a towering figure both terrifying and tragic. The visual style is unmistakably del Toro — a baroque fusion of beauty and decay. Gothic staircases, flickering candelabras, blood-red angels wreathed in flame — these are callbacks not just to Frankenstein lore, but to del Toro’s own cinematic mythology. Fans will recognize echoes of Crimson Peak, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Pinocchio.

Frankenstein will premiere on Netflix in November 2025, just in time for the Halloween season hangover and awards buzz.