As part of its Comic-Con preview issue, EW has debuted a new image from this fall’s Victor Frankenstein, less a straight adaptation of Mary Shelley’s iconic novel and more a mash-up of all the various versions of the Frankenstein legend we’ve seen since.
This time around, James McAvoy plays the good doctor, and Daniel Radcliffe takes on the role of his assistant Igor, who was originally one of the mad scientist’s experiments (Igor didn’t appear in the original novel, but he was made famous by the 1931 Frankenstein, in which he was actually called Fritz). The pair have an odd dynamic that’s alternately balanced, father-son and master-slave.
Says McAvoy:
“Victor’s ego means that at times he thinks he’s superior to Igor. Their relationship is close, loving, abusive, manipulative, and it turns on a dime.”
According to Radcliffe, this version of the Frankenstein story still dovetails with the themes of the original:
“It’s about creation, and Victor is not only creating this monster but in a sense Igor, who in the beginning of the movie is living in abject conditions and considered less than human.”
Director Paul McGuigan is telling an origin story, but Shelley aficionados should expect some diversions from the original material. After all, what’s the fun in playing with such iconic characters if you can’t give them a new spin?
Here’s the official synopsis:
Told from Igor’s perspective, we see the troubled young assistant’s dark origins, his redemptive friendship with the young medical student Victor Von Frankenstein, and become eyewitnesses to the emergence of how Frankenstein became the man who created the legend we know today.
Victor Frankenstein opens November 25. It faces tough competition from Rocky spinoff Creed, Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, Warner Bros. sci-fi Midnight Special and Jonathan Levine-directed comedy Xmas, but with McAvoy and Radcliffe toplining, maybe Fox has good reason to be confident.
