Christian Bale is Frankenstein’s Monster and Jessie Buckley is the Bride of Frankenstein in director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, and Entertainment Weekly has shared several new images along with fresh insights from the filmmaker this afternoon.
The Bride! is set for theatrical release on March 6, 2026, and Gyllenhaal explains to EW that the project was born out of her realization that James Whale’s original classic Bride of Frankenstein isn’t actually about the iconic Bride of Frankenstein at all.
“Three minutes [of screentime], maybe, and honestly, not until the very end. It’s a Frankenstein movie,” Gyllenhaal explains. “And I will say, a lot of people, friends or people who’ve heard I was making this, would say, ‘Oh, you’re making Frankenstein.’ And I just sort of sweetly say, ‘No, I’m making the Bride of Frankenstein.’ And, in effect, it’s actually just the Bride, you know?”
Gyllenhaal teases, “We get to see a little bit of who she was before she’s brought back to life as the Bride. In a way, everything about the movie has an extreme mythological quality. She’s almost every woman in a way. Before she’s brought back, you watch her deal with a lot of shit. And she puts up with it, but she comes back with a very strong need to express herself.”
Head over to Entertainment Weekly for more insights from Maggie Gyllenhaal.
In the upcoming film, “A lonely Frankenstein (Bale) travels to 1930s Chicago to ask groundbreaking scientist Dr. Euphronious (five-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening) to create a companion for him. The two revive a murdered young woman and The Bride (Buckley) is born. What ensues is beyond what either of them imagined: Murder! Possession! A wild and radical cultural movement! And outlaw lovers in a wild and combustible romance!”
The film also stars Peter Sarsgaard, Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, and Oscar winner Penélope Cruz. Maggie Gyllenhaal directs from her own screenplay.
