Universal Pictures' upcoming Dracula spinoff has found its eponymous R.M. Renfield.
According to Deadline, X-Men alum and Tolkien star Nicholas Hoult will play the Transylvanian count's evil henchman.
Announced in November 2019, Renfield is produced by Skybound Entertainment and Robert Kirkman, with The Tomorrow War's Chris McKay directing from a script by Ryan Ridley.
The character of Renfield debuted in the 1897 novel Dracula and has appeared in numerous incarnations since. For the latest reimagining, Kirkman explained the team plans to lean into the obvious downsides that come with serving Count Dracula. "We're doing this cool movie for Universal [that has] a focus on Renfield. It's a story about him being Dracula's henchman and how shitty a job that is," Kirkman said in May. "It's a fun, extremely violent comedy, because I've got a crutch and it's violence."
Renfield is one of several Universal monster movies in development, along with Chloe Zhao's Dracula and the Ryan Gosling-led Wolfman, among others. The last Universal monster movie, The Invisible Man, hit theaters in 2020, just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Renfield has yet to receive a release date.
Source: Deadline