New Dracula spin-off will be an "extremely violent comedy," says Robert Kirkman

Gary Oldman in Dracula — (Image credit: Columbia Pictures)

Robert Kirkman has teased his upcoming Dracula spin-off movie, Renfield, promising plenty of laughs but with a violent edge.

"We’re doing this cool movie for Universal that’s a focus on Renfield," Kirkman told the Fat Man Beyond podcast. "It’s a story about him being Dracula’s henchman and how shitty a job that is. It’s a fun, extremely violent comedy because I’ve got a crutch, and it’s violence."

The movie will be based on an original story by Kirkman, the comic book writer behind The Walking Dead and Invincible (and their small screen adaptations), with a script by Ryan Ridley, who's previously written for TV shows like Community and Rick and Morty.

Chris McKay will direct and produce – his directing credits include The Lego Batman Movie. His latest title is The Tomorrow War, a sci-fi flick starring Chris Pratt, which is releasing on Amazon Prime in July.

Renfield was played by Tom Waits in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 take on the vampire tale and Samuel Barnett in the final season of Penny Dreadful, while Mark Gatiss portrayed the character in the 2020 BBC miniseries Dracula.

After the success of 2020's Elisabeth Moss-led The Invisible Man, Universal has a number of other monster titles up its sleeves, including Wolfman, starring Ryan Gosling, and a Van Helsing movie produced by Aquaman director James Wan. Dracula seems to be an especially hot property at the moment, with Nomadland director Chloé Zhao also set to put her own spin on the gothic tale.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.