Fans Want to Know What Language People Are Speaking in the 2025 Movie 'Frankenstein'

Movie fans are excited about the new Guillermo del Toro movie, Frankenstein. The film premiered on Netflix on Nov. 7, 2025, and the first scene has folks wondering what language people are speaking in the movie.

The Mexican filmmaker has made films in both Spanish and English, including Pan's Labyrinth, Pinocchio, The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy, and The Shape of Water. So, what language is the new 2025 movie Frankenstein in?

The language that people speak in the 2025 Frankenstein movie is English, for the most part. According to StyleCaster, the first scene is in Danish as the Captain of a Royal Danish Navy ship talks to his crew. Victor Frankenstein is rescued by the ship, and he tells his story in English.

French is also spoken in the film, as a younger version of Victor Frankenstein speaks to his mother in the early part of the movie. The 2025 film is based on the iconic Mary Shelley book Frankenstein, about an egotistical scientist who embarks on a monstrous experiment to make a living creature from different people's body parts.

Numerous films have been adapted from the horror story, including the 1994 version, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, starring Robert De Niro as the Creator and Kenneth Branagh as the monster.

Guillermo told Variety that while the 2025 movie Frankenstein is based on the original story, there are some changes.

The character of Elizabeth is reinvented, and Frankenstein has a new backstory. Other characters, including the scientist's friend, Henry, and his servant, Justine, are not in the film's adaptation.

“The usual discourse of Frankenstein has to do with science gone awry,” said the filmmaker. "But for me, it’s about the human spirit. It’s not a cautionary tale — it’s about forgiveness, understanding, and the importance of listening to each other."

Making Frankenstein is reportedly a lifelong dream of Guillermo's. The director told Tudum that Mary Shelley was an important figure in his childhood.

"The most important figure from English legacy is, incredibly, for me, a teenager by the name of Mary Shelley, and she has remained a figure as important in my life as if she were family," he said. "And so many times when I want to give up, when I think about giving up, when people tell me that dreaming of the movies and the stories I dream are impossible, I think of her.”

The director told Collider that Frankenstein was his favorite book growing up, and seeing the film as a kid left an "imprint" on the filmmaker-to-be's imagination.

"My favorite novel in the world is Frankenstein," he said. "I’m going to misquote it horribly, but the monster says, 'I have such love in me, more than you can imagine. But, if I cannot provoke it, I will provoke fear.'"

Frankenstein is currently available to stream on Netflix.