Netflix has released the first trailer for a new live-action take on a French literary classic.
Titled The Hunchback, Soul of Paris (Quasimodo, l’âme de Paris), the film is one of the streamer’s latest projects. It’s directed by Jean-François Richet (known for films like Plane and Mutiny) and features Vincent Cassel (Mesrine: Killer Instinct, Black Swan) in the role of Quasimodo. While the movie draws on Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, this version reinterprets the source material and takes its own narrative liberties rather than simply retelling the familiar story in a straightforward way.
Watch the trailer for The Hunchback, Soul of Paris below:
The trailer frames Victor Hugo as a character within the story itself — a witness to events who becomes motivated to create his Gothic novel. Hugo provides some voiceover in the preview, explaining his search for a central figure who embodies Paris’s downtrodden and marginalized populations. Clips in the trailer also make it clear that the upheavals tied to the French Revolution will play a significant role in the film’s backdrop.
Set against a Paris on the verge of uprising, the movie introduces an additional storyline involving disease. The trailer suggests Quasimodo may be resistant to cholera, drawing the curiosity of a physician and opening a darker thread about medical interest in his condition. The footage also gives a first glimpse at a character analogous to Esmeralda — the Romani performer who is the story’s other instantly recognizable figure — portrayed here by Daphné Patakia.
The cast also includes Karim Leklou, Benjamin Voisin, Noémie Lvovsky, Sébastien Pouderoux, Eli Nachmani, and Alexis Rosenstiehl. When early production stills were published, director Richet told Vanity Fair that his film would examine tensions between social classes, the contrast between popular and elite spheres, issues around medicine, and notions of beauty — including a focus on the unsettling history of medical experiments. In other words, he signaled an interest in the story’s darker, societal, and clinical dimensions as much as its emotional ones.
Disney’s 1996 animated The Hunchback of Notre Dame remains the most widely known cinematic interpretation for many viewers; that film addressed some parallel themes, though through a different tone and format, including the song “God Help the Outcasts,” composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and sung on-screen by Heidi Mollenhauer (with Demi Moore providing Esmeralda’s spoken dialogue). The 1996 cast also featured performers such as Jason Alexander, Jim Cummings, Tom Hulce, Tony Jay, and Kevin Kline.
Disney had at one point been developing its own live-action version that appeared likely to be a more faithful remake of its animated feature, in line with several of its recent live-action retellings, but that project has been put on hold indefinitely. Viewers who prefer grittier, more unconventional live-action adaptations — or who want a fresh perspective on Hugo’s tale rather than a straightforward Disney-style remake — may find Netflix’s reinterpretation appealing when it arrives.
The Hunchback, Soul of Paris will debut on Netflix on November 27, 2026.
Ava Thornton is an entertainment journalist with a keen eye for the latest in Hollywood, indie films, and streaming trends.
Her work blends insider knowledge with a deep appreciation for storytelling.
