Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman Are Teaming Up Again — This Time on Netflix

Well, here we go again – Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman, basically the Scorsese and De Niro of monster movies, are teaming up for another round. This time, it's not men in red demon suits or giant robots, but a Netflix animated feature called The Buried Giant. If you like your fantasy old, weird, and deeply British, you might want to keep an eye on this one.

The Del Toro-Perlman Power Combo

Del Toro and Perlman are no strangers; their working relationship goes way, way back. First, there was Cronos (1992), then Perlman popped up in Blade II (vampires), PACIFIC RIM (Kaiju), Nightmare Alley (carnies), and, let's not forget, raising hell (literally) in Hellboy and its sequel. Most recently, Perlman voiced a character in del Toro's Oscar-winning stop-motion Pinocchio for Netflix.

It was during a recent Q&A in London—right after del Toro picked up a British Film Institute Fellowship, by the way—that he casually confirmed Perlman's casting in The Buried Giant. 'He's coming on the next movie,' del Toro said, which, frankly, is probably code for 'I don't make movies without him at this point.' The funny thing is, del Toro played it coy: no word yet on who Perlman is actually voicing, which just adds to the fun if you like to play guess-the-creature.

So... What Is The Buried Giant?

If this is the first you're hearing about The Buried Giant, it's an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, which is kind of a left-field pick for an animated movie. The story: an old married couple trudges across a fog-shrouded, post-King Arthur England, where memory is slippery and the countryside is crawling with trolls, fairies, and the general medieval strangeness.

Del Toro is writing the script with Dennis Kelly (who you might know from Utopia), and he sounds pretty adamant that this one isn't being made with the kids in mind. The director calls it a 'fascinatingly difficult stop-motion movie for adults' and stresses there are 'no concessions' for any family-friendly crowd. Translation: expect something moody, strange, and probably not ending with everyone hugging it out.

'I want all the creatures to be of the same material. It's gonna take us years. And it's incredibly difficult.'
— Guillermo del Toro, explaining his stop-motion obsession for The Buried Giant

Why Stop-Motion?

Here's where it gets a bit nerdy in the best way: del Toro explained his logic for animation vs. live action, saying that mixing live actors with animated creatures tends to veer into creepy/awkward territory (call it 'the uncanny valley problem'). By literally building everything from the ground up in stop-motion, del Toro wants the whole world to feel cohesive—basically, if you're going to have old folks wandering medieval England with trolls for company, everything should look like it comes from the same reality. Makes sense, honestly.

Cast So Far

• Ron Perlman – confirmed, but his role is being kept secret (which isn't exactly new for these guys)

The rest of the cast? Zilch so far. The only thing anyone knows is Perlman is back.

Release Date?

If you're already throwing this on your Netflix watchlist, hold your horses: there's no release date in sight. Stop-motion takes forever (see above), and del Toro made it clear this one's going to be a heavy lift.

Bottom line: expect something moody, meticulously crafted, and probably not like anything else on Netflix—assuming you're OK with waiting a while. And, if you're a Ron Perlman completist, just know you'll need to add an animated knight, troll, or random medieval figure to your Perlman bingo card soon.