‘The Bride!’ First Look: Christian Bale Is a Punk Frankenstein in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Sophomore Feature

Christian Bale is taking on yet another iconic canon role after his “Dark Knight” trilogy, but this time, he’s playing not a superhero but a man-made monster.

Bale has transformed into Frankenstein for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s sophomore feature “The Bride!” Jessie Buckley stars as the titular bride of Frankenstein, with writer/director Gyllenhaal sharing a first look at the upcoming Warner Bros. film on social media.

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“Meet The Bride and Frank,” Gyllenhaal captioned.

In addition to Buckley and Bale, the all-star cast also includes Annette Bening, Penelope Cruz, and Peter Sarsgaard, who is married to Gyllenhaal. The logline for the film reads: “A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide 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.”

And if that echoes Oscar-winning feature “Poor Things,” rest assured that Buckley’s Bride is not at all like Bella Baxter. Buckley, who collaborated with Gyllenhaal on the director’s feature debut “The Lost Daughter” in 2021, told IndieWire that the film is full of Gyllenhaal’s twisted “imagination.”

“It is beyond my wildest dreams getting to go back and work with [Gyllenhaal] again. We really fell in love working on ‘The Lost Daughter,'” Buckley said. “I feel so grateful that I get to be part of a coin of extraordinary women who have so much to say, such brilliant minds, and such imagination.”

“The Bride!” actor Sarsgaard teased to The Independent that “The Bride!” is a “big, romantic, deeply romantic, wild, punk monster movie.”

Sarsgaard added, “I think it’s going to be energizing! It’s rambunctious! People are going to be very surprised that this is Maggie’s second movie. It is nothing, at all, like ‘The Lost Daughter.'”

In addition to writer/director Gyllenhaal, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Talia Kleinhendler, and Osnat Handelsman-Keren are also producing the film.

For Frankenstein fans, there’s plenty more iterations to come: Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” is in the works starring Oscar Isaac as the mad scientist, Jacob Elordi as The Monster, and Mia Goth. Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams’ “Lisa Frankenstein” was also released earlier in 2024.

“The Bride!” premieres October 3, 2025 from Warner Bros. See the first look photos below.

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