It’s the story of Dracula like you’ve never seen it before. On Jan. 5, Universal released the first trailer for their new film, “Renfield,” which follows the story of Dracula’s most loyal servant, the titular Renfield. But Renfield (played by Nicholas Hoult) is tired of being the familiar to the most famous vampire of all time. Serving Dracula – played by Nicolas Cage – is just one indignity after another, and Renfield wants to get out of their toxic relationship for good. But as the trailer shows, wanting and doing are two very different things, and Renfield’s got a lot of work to do to get away from Dracula permanently.
Hoult and Cage are joined in the action comedy by Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, and Brandon Scott Jones. The movie is directed by “The Lego Batman Movie”‘s Chris McKay from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley. The story idea came from “The Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirkman.
Renfield is a real character in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula.” In the book – and as in “Renfield”‘s trailer – he’s obsessed with eating bugs. Stoker portrays the character as suffering delusions that make him think if he eats living things, he’ll take their life force for himself. At the end of the novel, Dracula kills him, but we bet “Renfield” will have a very different ending.
Ahead, here’s everything we know about “Renfield” so far!