CONFIRMED
The first official trailer for Werwulf, Robert Eggers’ new horror feature, has landed, according to Deadline. It brings back three of the faces from Nosferatu, the same studio, and the same December 25 release slot. IMDb is already calling it the perfect Nosferatu companion, but that framing is editorial opinion rather than anything Eggers or Focus Features has said.
What we know
Deadline reported the first official trailer for Werwulf, which premiered on a Monday. The article carries a June 2026 date in its URL, so that is the window we can stand behind for the trailer’s debut.
Per Deadline, Werwulf reunites Eggers with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe. All three appeared in Nosferatu. Eggers co-wrote the script with Sjón, his frequent collaborator, and Focus Features financed and produced the film alongside the two of them.
The trailer itself, as Deadline describes it, puts the three leads in a grainy 4:3 frame. A voice talks about a curse hanging over their family, and the trailer closes on Taylor-Johnson’s character transforming into a werewolf. That is the whole pitch in a single image: an Eggers period piece where the monster is not lurking in a castle but living inside the household.
The official tagline, again from Deadline, is “a harrowing tale of devotion, damnation, and the devil within.” Deadline said no official synopsis had been released at the time of writing.
Variety confirmed the reteam between Eggers and Focus Features and describes Werwulf as a werewolf horror film co-written with Sjón, slated for a Christmas Day 2026 release in North America. Nosferatu opened on Christmas Day 2024 through the same studio, and Deadline puts that film’s worldwide gross at around $181 million. The holiday slot is clearly a deliberate echo.
What is rumored
Several outlets outside our usual confirmed-source list have added details we have not been able to check.
Comicbookmovie.com and World of Reel say the film was shot on 35mm and will be projected in 1.37:1, which would square with the 4:3 look Deadline describes in the trailer. That is plausible, and it is not verified here.
What we don’t know yet
There is still no official synopsis. We know there is a family, a curse and a werewolf, and that is roughly it. The trailer’s voiceover is not attributed to any character in Deadline’s account, so we cannot say who is narrating.
Character names and the exact period setting have not been detailed by Deadline or Variety. Eggers’ films are usually locked to a specific century and place, and we do not have that yet.
The IMDb article that calls Werwulf a Nosferatu companion could not be opened, so we do not know which trailer it is discussing or whether it adds any new information. No statement from Focus or Eggers describing the film as a companion to Nosferatu has turned up.
Release dates outside North America remain unconfirmed by any primary source.
What it means
The honest version of the Nosferatu connection is simpler than a franchise tease. Same director, same co-writer, same studio, three of the same actors, same release date on the calendar. Those are verifiable links. A shared universe or a deliberate thematic sequel is not, and nobody official has claimed one.
What the trailer does show is Eggers staying in his lane in the best way. After The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman and Nosferatu, a werewolf story about devotion and damnation inside a cursed family is exactly the kind of folk-horror material he has built a career on. The grainy 4:3 presentation suggests another film that wants to look like an artifact rather than a product.
If the Christmas release holds, Focus is betting that the audience that turned Nosferatu into a $181 million hit will come back for a second helping of holiday dread. For now, that is the story: a trailer, a date and a transformation shot. Everything beyond that is still waiting on an official synopsis.