Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein Movie Cast and Roles Revealed

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Guillermo del Toro is creating a monster, and he’s showing off some of his utensils. The celebrated filmmaker’s next movie under his overall Netflix deal is a Frankenstein movie based on art from the late Bernie Wrightson (which was sold to Netflix by his widow, Elizabeth S. Wrightson). The title is uncertain right now – some say Frankenstein, some say Dr. Frankenstein, some say Prodigal Father – but it’s about a scientist named Dr. Pretorious who wants to continue Dr. Frankenstein’s work by tracking down Frankenstein’s Monster, who supposedly died in a fire. Andrew Garfield, Mia Goth, Oscar Isaac, and Chrisoph Waltz will star in the film, and according to What’s On Netflix, we now know who the actors are playing. Andrew Garfield is “the Doctor,” which presumably means Dr. Pretorioius as opposed to Dr. Frankenstein. Oscar Isaac will be Frankenstein’s Monster (damn, and I thought he might really be dead), with Mia Goth as his Bride. Christoph Waltz will appear in “a European male role.” (The devil, you say!)

My initial thought was that Oscar Isaac has once again been cast in a role he’s too short to play convincingly. First, he was Apocalypse in an X-Men movie, and now he’s Frankenstein’s Monster? But a search tells me that Boris Karloff, the most famous embodiment of the Monster, was 5’11, just two inches taller than Isaac, so I guess it’s not really a big deal. (I know Robert De Niro played the Monster once, but that movie was awful and more boring than staring at a pair of socks for hours after you’ve balled them up, so it’s not exactly the model for casting.) I imagine the massive boots Karloff wore played a role in his perceived stature in the film, so hopefully, del Toro gives Isaac a pair. As for the others, I like the casting very much; Garfield can play a driven character quite well, and I can see him bringing an obsessive quality to Dr. Frankenstein’s heir apparent. (Whether this is Victor Frankenstein or Henry Frankenstein will tell us which version of the story this is a sequel to.) I’ve never seen Mia Goth in a movie before, but based on pictures, she looks like she’d make a good Bride of Frankenstein, which probably sounds like an insult, but I mean it as a compliment. And Christoph Waltz is always good, so he can do whatever he wants in this film; I wonder if he may be a long-thought-dead Dr. Frankenstein who returns when news of his Monster’s survival reaches him. I’m very much looking forward to this movie, and I really want to see what Guillermo del Toro does with one of fiction’s most famous monsters.