First look at classic literary monster Grendel from the upcoming movie adaptation

Beowulf is one of the foundational texts of English literature, an epic poem about a warrior named Beowulf who takes on a fearsome monster named Grendel, then Grendel's mother, and finally a mighty dragon. In 1971, author John Gardner wrote Grendel, which tells the story of Beowulf from the monster's point of view. Grendel imagines the titular character as a thoughtful, angry outcast who doesn't know how to fit into the world.

Grendel has been adapted to the screen before (there's an opera too, FYI), but the story has resonated down through the decades and writer-director Robert D. Krzykowski is taking a crack at it for modern audiences. The new movie will feature Jeff Bridges as Grendel; Bryan Cranston as King Hrothgar, whose court Grendel harries; T Bone Burnett as the Shaper, whose music and tales drive Grendel to fits of existential madness; and Dave Bautista as Beowulf, the warrior who puts an end to Grendel's rampage. But after coming to understand the tormented creature, will we want him too?

Another star is Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which has made many terrific puppets and animatronic creations for the screen over the years. "[W]e were searching and searching for the right shape, and we didn’t want the face to be too flattened and humanoid," Krzykowski told The Hollywood Reporter of Grendel's design. "We wanted him to be frightening, and you’d believe that he’d be able to take on all of these warriors...[Y]ou want to create a classic movie monster, an unforgettable movie monster."

"When I was sketching one day, I was looking at the Pink Panther and his head shape. I just loved the round top of the head and the snout, and I started thinking about the way Grendel teases Hrothgar reminded me a lot of the way the Pink Panther taunts and teases Inspector Clouseau. Then I started thinking, “This will be really neat for a creature performance, because now the head’s not down with the actor, it’s not on their face. It’s going to be up above them, which is a real opportunity for puppetry, animatronic puppetry.” So you have people offscreen controlling the eyes and the mouth, and then the person below is really focused on kind of a dance-like movement that moves along with what Jeff Bridges does at Skywalker [Ranch] for his physical performance."

THR also shared some renderings of what Grendel will look like in the movie. I don't think this is the actual animatronic puppet but something closer to a concept sketch. Either way, if I saw the glint of intelligence in those beastly eyes, I would run:

Grendel won't feature much gore, but there will be "bond-crunching action scenes"

Krzykowski also shared some of how the Grendel movie will approach the story. One of Grendel's curses is that he's largely unable to communicate with the people closest to him; his mother is mute, and the other beasts of the land too stupid to make decent conversation. The dragon is willing to talk to him, but he's a downer of a nihilist. There's a part of Grendel that would like to hang out with the men in Hrothgar's hall, but they see him as a monster so he settles for slaughtering them. That means the book spends a lot of time inside Grendel's head.

"Grendel is, of course, an untrustworthy narrator, and we’re seeing everything through his perspective," Krzykowski said. "So he talks to us, he narrates, we hear his thoughts. He talks to other characters that aren’t necessarily hearing him, and sometimes he imagines conversations that they’re having with him. … So rather than have him always kind of watching from a window in the mead hall, there are times where he’s just sitting at a table in the mead hall where nobody acknowledges him, but he gets to be in the room lit with real light and feel more like he’s part of Hrothgar’s kingdom and his people. So it brings a closeness to it, where now the actors are within very close proximity to him. It’s kind of like: You’re aware of every rule, you’re breaking every rule, but you’re very aware of what the audience will psychologically accept."

As for the slaughter, Krzykowski says that the movie will be PG-13. "[W]hat that means, though, is that we can’t necessarily throw blood all over the screen. But what we can do is really bone-crunching action scenes," he said. "And so that’s going to be like some Hong Kong-style wire pulls and people spinning into rafters and crashing through tables and being thrown into the fireplace."

Beowulf and Grendel have never fully left the screen; Robert Zemeckis made an animated Beowulf movie back in 2007 starring Ray Winstone as Beowulf and Crispin Glover as Grendel. I'm interested to see a new take on Grendel specifically, since I think that taps into something that never goes out of style; there will always be an audience out there for a movie about someone who doesn't quite know where they fit. And if you can soak the whole thing in a fantasy aesthetic, all the better.

There's no release date for Grendel as of right now, but we probably won't see it until 2026.

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