Nicholas Hoult Will Star as Dracula’s Henchman in Universal’s Renfield

He’s performed J.R.R. Tolkien, the X-Men’s Beast, and a romantic zombie—plus, all of us witnessed him in Mad Max: Fury Road. Now Nicholas Hoult is including one other notch to his already spectacular style resume, signing on to star because the title character in Chris McKay’s Dracula-adjacent Universal monster film Renfield.

Probably probably the most well-known portrayals of Renfield (up to now) might be present in 1931’s Dracula (the place he’s performed by legendary character actor Dwight Frye) and 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, during which director Francis Ford Coppola forged esteemed musician and occasional weird-guy actor Tom Waits because the vampire’s confined-to-an-asylum, snacking-on-bugs-and-grubs acquainted. This new challenge from McKay (The Tomorrow War, The Lego Batman Movie)—which we first heard about in late 2019—will lean into the character’s humorous potential, which implies the versatile Hoult will get to flex his horror-comedy muscular tissues. This casting information got here from the Hollywood Reporter right this moment.

Back in May, The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman—who got here up with Renfield’s story and is co-producing—described it as “a story about [Renfield] being Dracula’s henchman and how shitty a job that is. It’s a fun, extremely violent comedy because I’ve got a crutch, and it’s violence.” The script itself is by Ryan Ridley (whose earlier writing credit embody Community and Rick and Morty). Renfield is a part of each a rising array of Dracula-themed motion pictures in addition to Universal’s rising array of monster motion pictures—the latter impressed by its personal classics within the wake of The Invisible Man and the studio’s (up to now) profitable reshaping of its failed Dark Universe. Other motion pictures on the best way embody Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell’s tackle The Wolfman, starring Ryan Gosling; Dark Army from Paul Feig (2016’s Ghostbusters); Charlie’s Angels’ Elizabeth Banks’ Invisible Woman film; and Karyn Kusama’s Dracula, which presumably received’t be tied to Renfield, given Universal’s new desire for standalone tales.

So far there’s no different casting information for Renfield—presumably, the Big Bloodsucker himself will seem, together with maybe different traditional suspects like Van Helsing and Mina Harker?—however we’ll maintain you up to date as and after we study it. What are your ideas on Renfield? Is Hoult a sensible choice? Let us know within the feedback!

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