Vincent Cassel Is Quasimodo in the First Trailer for Netflix’s Dark ‘The Hunchback, Soul of Paris’ as Release Date Is Revealed

Victor Hugo’s most famous outcast has been adapted many times, but Netflix is taking a much grittier approach. Its new live-action ‘The Hunchback’ adaptation, titled ‘The Hunchback, Soul of Paris’ in English, tries to reimagine the man who may have inspired the character rather than retell the familiar story. It’s the second time Netflix has tried to adapt the material, after a 2018 version starring Idris Elba never came to fruition.

The project has gone through a few names. Netflix’s international title is ‘The Hunchback, Soul of Paris’, while the French production is known as ‘Quasimodo’. The film has been in the works for a while; it’s directed by Jean-François Richet, written by Eric Besnard and produced by Radar Films.

Now viewers have their first proper look at it. DiscussingFilm shared the first trailer for the new adaptation starring Vincent Cassel, which ends with a crowd of Parisians in top hats and caps as someone shouts, “Power to the people!” The film is releasing November 27 on Netflix.

This version changes the story’s timeline. It reframes ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’, which was published in 1831 and set in 1482, as a historical thriller set against Paris’s 1830 cholera outbreak. The official logline reads: “Paris, 1830. As cholera threatens to ravage the city, a hunchback hunted for medical experiments is caught between political turmoil and impossible love.”

The premise is based on a real theory. Speaking to Vanity Fair France, Richet explained that the script is inspired by the theories of British archivist Adrian Glew, who claimed the famous bell-ringer was actually based on a real-life stone carver Hugo encountered. The director described it as a credible premise rather than a true story.

First trailer for a new live-action adaptation of ‘THE HUNCHBACK’, starring Vincent Cassel. Releasing November 27 on Netflix. https://t.co/1nIr5AyEfz

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 8, 2026

The trailer shows the story’s darker tone. Cassel’s Quasimodo is a stonemason, and the authorities chasing him don’t want to lock him up — they want to experiment on him. The trailer barely shows Cassel’s face, and the footage opens on a dark cobblestone street lit by flickering fires, setting a much grimmer mood than anything Disney ever offered.

The supporting cast fills out that conflict. Agnès, played by Daphné Patakia, gives Quasimodo an emotional conflict, while Karim Leklou plays the security chief leading the hunt and Benjamin Voisin plays a doctor who wants to experiment on him. Noémie Lvovsky, Sébastien Pouderoux, Alexis Rosenstiehl and Eli Nachmani also appear.

Cassel and Richet have worked together before. The pair are longtime collaborators, having made the acclaimed crime epic ‘Mesrine’ and the 2018 historical epic ‘The Emperor of Paris’. Cassel is also no stranger to Netflix, having recently starred in the EDM satire ‘Banger’, which dropped on the platform in 2025.

This isn’t your typical Disney adaptation. ‘The Hunchback, Soul of Paris’ is a historical action-thriller set during a 1830s cholera outbreak. See Vincent Cassel in the first-look images for the new Netflix film: https://t.co/HNenhNrjPH https://t.co/R2vVy7B8yu

— What’s on Netflix (@whatonnetflix) September 24, 2026

The star looks very different here. Vanity Fair’s exclusive first-look photos showed Cassel undergoing a dramatic transformation to play the famous hunchback. Filmonger noted that the challenge for Cassel will be making the character’s isolation and vulnerability believable without turning him into a visual gimmick.

Netflix appears to be investing heavily. The production reportedly carried a budget of €30 million, with filming in the Centre-Val de Loire and Paris Île-de-France regions. Shooting began on August 25, 2025, and wrapped on November 7, 2025.

With a darker, more grounded take on a well-known story, Netflix is betting that audiences are ready for a very different Quasimodo. Viewers will find out soon whether Cassel’s version works.

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