Guillermo del Toro Says Frankenstein Ends an Era — Next Project Will Be a Radical Departure

Guillermo del Toro finally made his Frankenstein. Netflix backed the decades-long passion project, he premiered it at TIFF, and now he says it marks the end of a chapter for him. Not his last movie, to be clear — just the end of a certain del Toro mode.

Del Toro says Frankenstein 'closes the cycle'

Talking to Empire, del Toro framed Frankenstein as the culmination of a very specific streak in his work — the one that runs through Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, and Crimson Peak. Same gothic DNA, same melancholy fairy-tale pulse, same empathy-forward monsters. He sounds ready to pivot.

'Frankenstein closes the cycle... I feel like I need a change.'

Will he swerve back into that lane someday? Maybe. He even joked that he could wake up and decide to tackle Jekyll & Hyde tomorrow. But right now, he wants to do something very different.

The near future, the long shot, and the wild new one

• The vibe shift: He views Frankenstein as the endpoint of his old gothic rhythm. He could circle back for a Jekyll & Hyde riff one day, but for the moment he is actively hunting a new tone.
• The one that got away: At The Mountains of Madness is still on his dream list, but he basically waved it off this time. In his words, it is too big, too crazy, too R-rated — and after finishing Frankenstein, he is not convinced he wants to go there anymore.
• The next thing brewing: He is writing a new project for Oscar Isaac, who stars in Frankenstein. The script is called Fury. He describes it as a return to the nastier, thriller edge of Nightmare Alley — very cruel, very violent — and he gave the most del Toro logline imaginable: 'Like My Dinner with Andre but [with] killing people after each course.'

So how is Frankenstein?

Our critic caught it at the Toronto International Film Festival and came away impressed, if not fully bowled over. The first half is a slow burn that pushes the patience meter, but once it locks in, the back half nearly soars. Think uneven on the way up, powerful once it hits altitude. Imperfect, yes — but the kind of undiluted, filmmaker-first vision you do not get often. Essential viewing if you are on del Toro's wavelength.

Bottom line: del Toro finally got to make the monster movie he has been chasing for decades, and now he is closing the book on that chapter. Whatever comes next, expect a sharp left turn — and maybe a very polite dinner that ends in murder, course by course.