The Bride! Teaser Drops: Maggie Gyllenhaal Revives Bride of Frankenstein, In Theatres March 2026
The first teaser trailer for Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! unleashes a fierce Bride of Frankenstein reinvention starring Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley, stalking into theatres this March.
Maggie Gyllenhaal has finally pulled the sheet off her take on the Bride of Frankenstein. It’s called 'The Bride!' (yes, exclamation point), the teaser trailer is out, and Warner Bros. has locked a new theatrical date: March 6, 2026, after bumping it from an October 2025 slot. This one was rumored to live at Netflix for a while, but nope — it’s a WB release and headed for theaters.
The studio shift is a little bit of inside baseball too: this isn’t a Universal movie, even though it’s playing with Universal’s classic monster DNA. Not the first time that’s happened either.
- Jessie Buckley as the Bride
- Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s Monster
- Annette Bening as Dr. Euphronius
- Peter Sarsgaard
- Penelope Cruz
- Julianne Hough
- John Magaro
- Jeannie Berlin
- Jake Gyllenhaal (yes, Maggie’s brother)
What is 'The Bride!' actually doing with the legend? Gyllenhaal is setting it in 1930s Chicago and leaning into the creation-gone-way-too-right energy. Here’s the official rundown:
A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement.
If you’re wondering whether this is secretly a musical: Peter Sarsgaard has flat-out said it isn’t. That said, he also admitted there are some dance routines in the mix, which… I mean, with this cast, why not.
For context: the last high-profile non-Universal riff on this story was Columbia’s 1985 movie 'The Bride' with Sting as Baron Charles Frankenstein, Jennifer Beals as Eva, and Clancy Brown as Viktor. And a few years back, Scarlett Johansson lined up a 'Bride' project at A24/Apple that still hasn’t actually started shooting.
The teaser seems to be pitching a romantic-horror spin with some bite — Buckley and Bale as the central duo is a killer pairing, and the Chicago setting is a smart swing. Curious to see how far the movie goes with the 'radical social movement' thread.
Trailer thoughts? Did 'The Bride!' do enough to hook you this far out from release? I’m in on the cast alone — tell me what you think.