‘The Hunchback, Soul of Paris’ Is a Grim & Gritty Take on Victor Hugo

Although Victor Hugo’s classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame is fiction, some elements of its story may have real-life roots. In 2010, a British archivist found references to a hunchbacked stone carver who worked on Notre Dame’s 1820s renovation. There’s no proof, of course, that Hugo ever met this person or knew he existed. But it’s a neat idea, and the film The Hunchback, Soul of Paris is prepared to run with it.

The French-language production stars Vincent Cassel (Liaison) and relocates Hugo’s story to 1830s Paris. Abandoning gothic convention for a more grounded historical drama, the story unfolds against the backdrop of a devastating cholera outbreak. Quasimodo ends up being hunted by French government officials in the hopes of turning him into a kind of test subject to find a cure for the deadly disease. (For some reason, the hunchback appears to be immune to cholera.)

The trailer lays out the basic beats of the story, with quick flashes of social unrest, a character who is clearly Esmerelda, and even someone referred to as “Mr. Hugo” (Guess he did meet Quasimodo in this reality!)

But whether the guy who’s extremely motivated to do experiments on humans is meant to be this story’s version of Claude Frollo remains to be seen.

Here’s the film’s synopsis.

Set in Paris on the eve of the July Revolution (1830), this film reimagines the life of the man said to have inspired Victor Hugo’s iconic character, Quasimodo. As the cholera epidemic spreads through the city, he’s caught between political turmoil and an impossible love.

Alongside Cassel, the film also stars Benjamin Voisin (Carême), Daphné Patakia (Versailles), Karim Leklou (The World Is Yours), Noémie Lvovsky (Juliette in Spring), Sébastien Pouderoux (The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan), and small-screen newcomers Eli Nachmani and Alexis Rosenstiehl.

Eric Besnard (Wrath of Man) penned the script, with Jean-François Richet directing, and Clément Miserez and Matthieu Warter producing.

Netflix will release The Hunchback, Soul of Paris globally on Friday, November 27, 2026.