Inside Del Toro’s Frankenstein: Elordi’s Casting and Ruthless Edits

Guillermo del Toro’s long-cherished take on Mary Shelley’s classic tale has not had an easy journey to the screen. Before Netflix could lay claim to the final cut, the director’s gothic vision was subjected to the sharp eyes and sharper tongues of his most trusted peers. Oscar Isaac steps into the shoes of Victor Frankenstein, while Jacob Elordi, a relative newcomer, assumes the role of the Creature. The supporting cast is nothing to sniff at either, with Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, David Bradley, and Charles Dance all lending their talents.

Del Toro, never one for public test screenings, prefers a more private, if no less daunting, gauntlet.

“What I do – because we don't test the movies – I show it to the 14, 16 most brilliant friends I know, and I'm blessed with good friendships,”

he explained at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

“Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro Iñárritu, Jim Cameron, Rian Johnson, Steven [Spielberg]. A lot of people see the movie, they tell me what they think, and we have the agreement to be brutal.”

Peer Review: No Holds Barred

Feedback from this circle is not for the faint-hearted. Del Toro recounted,

“Jim came in and he said, 'Look, there's this section' – which is not in the movie anymore – 'This is beautiful, but you gotta take it out.' And it was about seven minutes. When someone gives me a note that is in that circle, I do it. I don't argue.”

So, thanks to James Cameron’s candour, seven minutes of footage ended up on the cutting room floor. Not a trivial amount, considering the film clocks in at a rather substantial two and a half hours. Del Toro, however, kept the details of the excised scene close to his chest.

Elordi Steps Into the Monster’s Skin

When the film finally landed on Netflix last November, del Toro shed light on how Jacob Elordi came to inhabit the Creature after Andrew Garfield’s departure.

“When I spoke with Jacob the first time on Zoom, I texted Oscar, timestamped, and I said, 'I found him. We found him.' You can talk about range, you can talk about this, but it's essence. If the character's essence is perfect for the actor, or the actor's to the character, you don't have to think again. You just tailor it to them, and watch them grow. They can't fail.”

Elordi, for his part, described the process of finding the Creature’s voice as something that evolved alongside the character’s journey.

“While we were filming, [del Toro would] come back from the edit the next morning, and he'd say to me, 'There's a gravel that needs to be there,' because I was developing with the Creature as the Creature developed in the film,”

he recalled. Shooting in a roughly chronological order allowed him to let the voice grow organically. Early discussions with Oscar Isaac led to experiments with a kind of throat chant, which Elordi said was inspired by Tibetan techniques.

“But it was something that evolved, depending on the physicality of the scene or how he's being treated in the moment affects the way his voice works. And there's also a sensitivity that you want to find because you don't just want to growl and do something that doesn't mean anything. But I think the voice really comes from every incision, every memory, every different bit of flesh, every life lived — you have to build something that sounds like that.”

Production Notes and Cast

The film is set for release on 17 October 2025, running for 149 minutes. Del Toro not only directs but also co-writes, alongside Mary Shelley’s original text, with J. Miles Dale and Scott Stuber producing. The cast is led by Oscar Isaac as Dr. Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the Monster, with Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, David Bradley, and Charles Dance rounding out the ensemble.