As soon as fans recover from “Jacob Elordi as Frankenstein fever”, we enter 2026 with two new monsters to lust over, who are getting ready to enter the ring. Blending Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking original novel and James Whale’s camp classic Bride of Frankenstein, The Bride! is set to offer an original take on the gothic love story that has captivated genre fans for more than 90 years.
Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Bride! Will follow the titular monster and her gigantic lover as they embark on a rampage across Chicago, blending everything from dark romance to cop chases, and even some big dance numbers if the star-studded cast is to be believed. Originally slated for a Netflix release, The Bride! Is now set to grace cinema screens as we hurtle towards spring, much like Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein adaptation that was resurrected before it.
It is the first time we have (pretty much) enjoyed a Bride of Frankenstein remake, with the Universal Dark Universe originally set to include an adaptation of the film. However, following the commercial failure of 2017’s The Mummy, plans for the Avengers of horror fell apart pretty quickly, but it hasn’t marked the end of Universal Monsters hitting cinemas. With The Bride! Set to walk down theater aisles this year, here’s everything you need to know about the film…
Release date
The Bride! Will be released by Warner Bros on March 6, after being originally delayed from September 2025 and then to October. Initially slated to be a Netflix release, The Bride! Was pushed to the side in favour of Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein after the 2023 Writers’ Guild Strike and clashes over The Bride!’s budget threw production into disarray.
The film will be competing with several other releases on the same day, including upcoming animated flick Hoppers, Peaky Blinders’ first big screen outing, The Immortal Man, and Milla Jovovich-starring thriller Protector.
Plot
While the original Bride of Frankenstein was a direct sequel to the 1931 Frankenstein, The Bride! is a standalone story that takes inspiration from Mary Shelley’s novel as well as other, more unconventional sources. Speaking at last year’s CinemaCon Las Vegas, lead star Jessie Buckley teased: “It’s like Bonnie and Clyde and Wild at Heart and all those characters, but ours has petrol in its skin, and we’re holding a match to it,” adding that it is “the punkest love that’s ever existed.”
Intrigued? So are we, and an official synopsis for the film reads: “A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aid of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman, and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police, and a wild and radical social movement.”
Cast
Just like Frankenstein in 2025, The Bride! boasts a ridiculously star-studded cast packed with Hollywood heavyweights. After first working with Gyllenhaal on her multi-award-winning directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, Buckley takes on the lead role of The Bride. Speaking about the script and bringing her character to life, she told The New York Times: “There’s no part of being a woman in Maggie’s version of her monster that is [off-limits]. It’s a dangerous place, almost.”
Buckley stars opposite American Psycho icon Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s Monster himself, and has undergone some intense physical changes to embody his gargantuan character, as seen in on-set photos and trailer drops. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, his co-star Peter Sarsgaard confirmed that Bale stayed in character while on set: “With Christian Bale, he’s such a phenomenal actor who has such devotion,” Sarsgaard said.
“Watching him on set… You know, some actors try to stay in it. You have to call them by their character’s name and all that crap. They speak in the accent the entire time. It’s not like that with him. It is just that he can’t help but be in it. It’s not a choice. It’s not a pretension. It’s just the way that he is. That changes the set when you have that type of leadership with him and with Maggie.”
Sarsgaard (who is also Gyllenhaal’s husband) will appear as a detective hot on the monstrous couple’s trail, while Annette Bening will star as Dr. Euphronius, a scientist experimenting on The Bride. It has also been revealed that the director’s brother, Jake Gyllenhaal, will appear in the film in an as-yet undisclosed role. The cast is rounded out by the likes of Penelope Cruz, John Magaro, Julianne Hough, Jeannie Berlin, and more.
The Bride! Trailer
The first trailer for The Bride!, released back in September, opens pretty boldly with Buckley’s character falling down a flight of stairs. Wasting no time, plunging the audience into the macabre world of The Bride!, we cut to two people digging up a grave to revive her after what she describes as an “accident.” Frankenstein corrects her, though, responding: “There wasn’t any accident. Everything we did, we did it on purpose. There is nothing left to do now…but live.”
We see The Bride covered in wires before re-animating with black splotches on her face and hand, laying eyes on her monstrous partner for the first time, and smirking. What follows is a montage of absolute carnage as they go on the run from the law, with the words “here comes the fucking bride” aptly lighting up the screen as they dance, run, and scream their way across Chicago with the police hot on their trail. After all of that? We’re in for the ride.
The latest trailer expands on the madness we first saw, instead beginning with The Bride smoking a cigarette and smiling as Frankenstein watches on. She then falls as a looming figure watches on, and with this extra footage, it sort of feels like maybe her death wasn’t an accident at all (of course, what else were you expecting?). There’s plenty more blood, electric moments, and sparkly lab equipment to capture the imagination this time around, as well as much more of a look at the “punk rock” romance The Bride and Frankenstein embark on, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.
Production
After Universal’s Dark Universe fell apart, the prospect of a Bride of Frankenstein remake was floated in 2023 when Production Weekly reported Netflix was set to take on the project with Gyllenhaal directing and Cruz, Bale, and Sarsgaard starring. In January 2024, it was then announced that Warner Bros would be producing, and that Bening and Buckley would be among the cast. In August of the same year, it was reported by The Wall Street Journal that Netflix had left the project, and that Warner Bros had taken over the production.
Principal photography began in March 2024, with Sarsgaard teasing to The Hollywood Reporter that the film includes some huge dance numbers: “There are big dance numbers and stuff in the movie. It's the best thing I've ever read.” He added, “To me, it’s both a big movie for adults and a big movie that’s for teenagers. It’s what everyone hopes for and tries to solve in making a big movie.”
The Bride! comes alive in theaters March 6. For more of our most anticipated new horror movies of 2026, check out our full list of new horror releases coming this year.
