HBO Max Is Bringing Back One of the Most Unexpected Sci-Fi Masterpieces of All Time

3 days ago 4

Published Jan 31, 2026, 10:20 AM EST

Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.

Guillermo del Toro is officially back in the Oscars race this year with his adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The director's Netflix passion project will head into award night with nine nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Jacob Elordi, though it will be facing some stiff competition from critical darlings like Sinners and One Battle After Another. However, it wouldn't be the first time one of his gothic features swooped in to best the competition. His 2017 instant classic sci-fi fantasy, The Shape of Water, came out ahead of Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk and Jordan Peele's Get Out, among others, in the race for the top prize. Ahead of this year's Academy Awards, it's now returning to HBO Max starting on February 1 for viewers to look back on.

The Shape of Water was co-written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor as one of the director's most romantic films to date. It takes inspiration from del Toro's childhood memories of watching Universal's Creature From the Black Lagoon when he was seven years old, twisting its elements to fit his unique vision. At the center of the story is Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute custodian at a high-security government facility in 1962 Baltimore, who stumbles across the laboratory's darkest secret — a scaled, amphibious humanoid creature (Doug Jones) living in a water tank. The two form a deep bond that spurs Elisa to hatch a plan to free "The Amphibian Man" from containment, before the cruel Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) can continue experimenting on it. Granting her curious lover freedom doesn't come without risk, though, as Strickland and the government come after everyone involved in the plot.

By the time the 2018 Oscars were through, del Toro's English-language masterpiece was holding four statuettes, including for Best Director, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design to go with the Best Picture win. It had over double the nominations of Frankenstein, though. Among its 13 nods were three for the acting of Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, and Octavia Spencer, as well as an original screenplay nomination for del Toro and Taylor. In addition to the success among critics and at the Oscars, it was also a smash hit in theaters, grossing an impressive $195.2 million on a budget of around $19.5 million.

What's Next for Guillermo del Toro After 'Frankenstein'?

A follow-up to Frankenstein hasn't been set in stone for del Toro yet, but he has teased what his next steps will include. At the Toronto International Film Festival last year, the director revealed that he was working on a reunion with his Dr. Frankenstein, Oscar Isaac, for the thriller Fury, which he said will be much different than his creature-centric features. "It’s going back to the thriller aspects of Nightmare Alley, he said at the time. "It’s very cruel, very violent." He and Netflix are also getting back together for another stop-motion project, adapting Kazuo Ishiguro’s fantasy novel, The Buried Giant. One thing that is not on his radar, however, is H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, another favorite of his that has simply proven too difficult to adapt as he envisions.

The Shape of Water swims onto HBO Max on February 1. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the biggest titles coming to and leaving streaming throughout the year.