A new photo from Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming movie “Frankenstein” has been released, showing star Jacob Elordi completely transformed into the Creature. The look is very different from the classic green-skinned monster, featuring a pale, statue-like appearance without any stitches.
The image, shared by Netflix, reveals an unrecognizable Elordi with pale, ashen skin and deep, haunting shadows around his eyes. His face is marked with realistic, jagged scars, and his lips are colorless, creating a somber and eerie effect. The actor’s long, stringy hair completes the striking look, which took makeup artists 10 hours each day to apply.
A Design Inspired by Statues
The new design for the Creature moves away from the well-known Boris Karloff version with bolts and a flat head. Instead, del Toro and creature designer Mike Hill wanted a more beautiful and tragic figure.
The creature’s skin is an ivory white, inspired by alabaster statues carved by Old Masters. The joining wounds on its body are designed to look like flattering contour lines rather than vulgar scars. Mike Hill explained the goal was to make the Creature look “man made,” not like a “repair job.”
“I spent decades wondering how I would do this character in my own version of this,” Hill said. “We didn’t want this creature to be too garish, we didn’t want it to look like a road accident victim.”
The Painstaking Transformation
Bringing this vision to life was a major undertaking. Jacob Elordi wore 42 individual silicone prosthetics for the full-body look—12 on his head and 30 on his body. A team of eight people applied these pieces, a process that took up to 10 hours for full-body shots.
The design shows how Victor Frankenstein might have pieced the Creature together, with a geometric pattern of different muscular sections. Mike Hill described it as a “paint by numbers” system, showing where the best body parts were assembled, with some intentional “patchworks” and “mistakes” to show it was a first attempt.
“You see the patterns where Victor’s taken this apart and put it back on and decided that’s wrong,” Hill said. “He’s making a man for the first time, so he’s not getting it entirely correct on the first go.”
Elordi’s Physical and Emotional Journey
For Jacob Elordi, playing the Creature was more than just a physical change; it was a deeply personal role. He has said that the part came to him at a time when he wanted to “hide” and “go away for a while,” and he found that escape within the character.
“I was liberated in this makeup,” Elordi said. “I didn’t have to be this version of myself anymore. In those six months, I completely rebuilt myself. And I came out of this film with a whole new skin.”
Director Guillermo del Toro praised Elordi’s professionalism and dedication, noting that the actor never complained during the 20-hour days required for the role. Del Toro also shared that he cast Elordi because of his eyes, which are “so full of humanity.”
How Fans Are Reacting
The newly revealed look has generated strong reactions online, with many fans praising the fresh take on the classic character. On social media, one fan commented, “Mary Shelley would love this version,” while another noted, “Imagine Mary finally seeing a movie adaptation without the green-skinned version of the Creature.”
The design choice aims to shift the focus from the Creature’s appearance to its actions and internal struggle. As one early review of the film noted, “The movie questions whether monstrousness is something defined by appearance or actions.”
A New Chapter for a Classic Monster
Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Mia Goth as Elizabeth, Victor’s fiancée. The film is set in the 1850s against the backdrop of the Crimean War, giving it a more modern sensibility compared to other adaptations.
The movie is in select theaters now and will begin streaming on Netflix on November 7.
Also Read: Jacob Elordi’s Frankenstein Creature Revealed in New Close-Up Look
