Frankenstein Netflix: Launch date twist for Guillermo del Toro's Edinburgh-shot film as cinema run revealed

The unexpected cinema release for the adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic gothic novel has been announced for October 17 before launching on the streaming platform on November 7.

Viewers will now be able to watch the film in select theatres, instead of streaming-only, in a rethink of Netflix’s launch plans for the hotly anticipated film.

Frankenstein filmed on location in Scotland, with large parts of Edinburgh shut down last September. Locations included the Royal Mile, Parliament Square, St Giles Street and the High Street.

Filming also took place at Dunecht House in Aberdeenshire, Hospitalfield House in Arbroath and Glasgow Cathedral.

Oscar Isaac leads the cast playing the mad scientist Victor Frankenstein, while Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi takes on the role at Frankenstein’s Monster.

Other stars include Mia Goth (X), Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front), Lars Mikkelsen (The Witcher, Ahsoka), David Bradley (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the Harry Potter films) and Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth).

Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz and Burn Gorman, who was seen during filming in Edinburgh, have also been confirmed.

Writer and director Guillermo del Toro is a three-time Oscar winner, most recently winning best animated feature for his stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio in 2023. He also won an Oscar for the 2017 film The Shape of Water.

He has been inspired by Shelley’s books since he was a child, previously describing his fascination with monsters in a 2008 interview with The Scotsman.

He said: “Even as a kid, I knew that monsters were far more gentle and far more desirable than the monsters living inside 'nice people'. I think being a monster, and accepting that you are a monster, gives you the leeway to not behave like one.

“There are truths about oneself that are really bad and hard to admit. But when you finally have the courage and say them, you liberate yourself. And monsters are a personification of that."

Del Toro has been working on a Frankenstein film for more than a decade.

The official trailer was released by Netflix in June, following Netflix’s Tudum 2025 event – which unleashed a slew of new details about upcoming shows and films.