Behold the Creature: Introducing Jacob Elordi as Frankenstein’s Monster

Guillermo del Toro breathes new life into Mary Shelley’s tale with Jacob Elordi as a tragic, terrifying, and transcendent Frankenstein’s Monster.

Inside a cavernous Toronto soundstage filled with dismembered limbs and melting blocks of ice, Guillermo del Toro is finally making the film he’s dreamed of for over three decades: Frankenstein. Steeped in themes of fatherhood, faith, and fatal ambition, the Netflix feature is both operatic and intimate, reimagining Mary Shelley’s classic through del Toro’s unmistakable Gothic lens. With Jacob Elordi donning the role of the creature, and Oscar Isaac as Dr. Viktor Frankenstein, this fall release promises to be as soul-shattering as it is visually stunning.

Del Toro calls this his “bucket list” film, one he feared he might not live long enough to complete. And after years of studios saying no, Netflix finally said yes. The film, set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival before its global release this November, marks the culmination of decades of personal sketches, theological musings, and cinematic obsession. The director’s past triumphs—Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, Pinocchio—were all dress rehearsals for this.

On set, del Toro directs Isaac with a mixture of precision and gallows humor, constructing the monster piece by piece with an artisan’s eye for detail and a comedian’s timing. The laboratory, designed as a 360-degree cistern in the Carpathian Mountains, pulses with red and green hues, echoing the film’s color-coded exploration of violence and vitality.

Elordi, towering at 6’5″, was a last-minute replacement for Andrew Garfield. But according to del Toro and makeup designer Mike Hill, he was the only actor who could embody the creature’s tragic physicality and emotional depth. Inspired by everything from Bernie Wrightson’s iconic illustrations to Boris Karloff’s immortal performance, Elordi turned his apartment into a Frankensteinian shrine and spent hours in prosthetics, quietly channeling a soul in torment.

This Frankenstein doesn’t just echo Shelley’s warning about unchecked science—it interrogates the generational trauma between fathers and sons. Del Toro, a father of two, draws parallels between the monster’s spiritual suffering and the emotional complexity of parenthood. The film stages a cosmic confrontation: a creation begging for answers, and a creator who offers none.

Oscar Isaac’s Frankenstein, molded by his own cruel father (played by Charles Dance), becomes the very force of pain he once feared. Mia Goth’s Elizabeth, David Bradley’s blind hermit, and Christoph Waltz’s Harlander round out the ensemble, each representing different forms of complicity, mercy, or menace.

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Frankenstein is no mere horror film. It’s a baroque meditation on life, death, and legacy. And for del Toro, it’s a long-awaited spiritual sermon, delivered through blood, bolts, and bone.

With a Venice premiere ahead and Oscar buzz already brewing, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein stands poised to become not just the definitive adaptation of Shelley’s novel, but a bold new benchmark in monster cinema. As Elordi’s creature rises into cinematic history, del Toro delivers what may be his most personal work yet—a film not just stitched from horror and heartbreak, but pulsing with questions about creation, responsibility, and the fragile miracle of existence.

Frankenstein First Look Images