Robert Eggers' ‘Werwulf' Gets First Official Trailer, and It's Pure Eggers

Here's our first real trailer of Robert Eggers' “Werwulf,” and it might be the most Eggers movie Eggers has ever made.

So, much like with “Nosferatu,” the marketing will keep the wolf hidden. Expect slow-building dread. Is seeing an Eggers film in theaters at Christmas becoming a tradition?

Also, I might be the only one bothered by this, but the amount of digital grain slapped onto this trailer is borderline absurd. It's distracting. I went back and rewatched the first trailer, and the grain simply isn't there. Which means someone made a conscious decision to add it in post. Why? Whatever "filmic" texture they were going for, it's not working. It looks artificial, and it's a baffling choice.

The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a 13th-century man haunted by a terrifying transformation, with Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, and Bodhi Rae Breathnach rounding out the cast. No further plot details about “Werwulf” have been made available at this time.

“Werwulf” grew out of — what else — Eggers’ lifelong fascination with folklore and monsters. As always, a great deal of historical research went into the production. Set in 13th-century Britain, Eggers said he drew heavily from medieval accounts of werewolf lore. The dialogue is written in Middle English, with the help of two Oxford professors.

Eggers had originally planned to shoot the film in black and white but ultimately abandoned the idea in favor of color. It was shot on 35mm film in the Super 35 format and will be presented in a boxy 1.37:1 aspect ratio. To achieve its distinctive visual style, the production incorporated the grain structure of black-and-white film into the color photography.

Eggers is, of course, the man behind “The Witch,” “The Lighthouse,” “The Northman,” and “Nosferatu” — a filmography that has yet to feature a single character who could honestly describe their week as “pretty good.” This is one morose dude we’re dealing with here.

“Werwulf” is scheduled to hit theaters on December 25, 2026, via Focus Features.