Guillermo del Toro Teases That His Post-‘Frankenstein’ Career May Look Very Different

The question for every filmmaker is always “what’s next?”, even when their latest movie hasn’t even come out. In the case of Oscar-winning visionary Guillermo del Toro, his latest passion project Frankenstein will release in select theaters on October 17 before streaming on Netflix on November 7. So what’s next for del Toro, in a post-Frankenstein world?

Speaking with Empire, the acclaimed filmmaker notes that his long-awaited Frankenstein adaptation closes a certain “cycle” of his career. And he may surprise us with what comes next.

“This movie closes the cycle,” del Toro explains to Empire. “If you look at the lineage, from Cronos to The Devil’s Backbone, to Pan’s Labyrinth to Crimson Peak to this, this is an evolution of a certain type of aesthetic, and a certain type of rhythm, and a certain type of empathy.”

“I feel like I need a change,” del Toro admits.

He adds, however, “You never know. The day after tomorrow, I may want to do Jekyll & Hyde, or whatever. But right now, my desire is to try and do something very different.”

It’s fitting that Frankenstein might end up closing a particular chapter within Guillermo del Toro’s filmography, as the film has been a passion project for del Toro for much of his life.

“This is, for me, the culmination of a journey that has occupied most of my life. I first read Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein as a kid and saw Boris Karloff in what became for me an almost religious state. Monsters have become my personal belief system,” the Academy Award-winning filmmaker told the audience at Netflix’s recent Tudum event.

“There are strands of Frankenstein throughout my films — Cronos, Blade, Hellboy, big time on Pinocchio, and a long, long et cetera. Exploring the relationship between humanity and monsters, creator and creation, father and son, has consumed my stores again and again,” del Toro continued. “I wanted to make this film before even I had a camera, and I’ve been actively pursuing it now for over 25 years It has grown so close to me that now it’s biography.”

You can read Meagan Navarro’s review of GDT’s Frankenstein here.