New Dracula Adaptation's "Kick-A--" Van Helsing Twist With Oscar Nominee Teased By Star

Published Oct 25, 2026, 2:14 PM EDT Sign in to your ScreenRant account EXCLUSIVE: This take on Dracula will be unlike any other in one key way, says actor David Jonsson. Audible's Dracula was released on October 1, 2026, a full-cast audio adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. This newest iteration stars Jonathan Bailey as Count Dracula, Ella Purnell as Mina Harker, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Professor Van Helsing, Aimee Lou Wood as Lucy Westenra, Louis Partridge as Jonathan Harker, David Jonsson as Dr. Seward, Johnny Flynn as Renfield, and Lesley Manville as Mrs. Westenra. The production makes some alluring changes to the original text, including the famous vampire expert Professor Van Helsing being an American woman. In an interview with ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns, Jonsson praised the team behind this project for "staying true to [...] [the] gothic novel" while offering this "kick-a--" change among other alterations that enrich the story. Check out Jonsson's full comments below: Well, I really do believe that this audio drama is so good at staying true to what Bram Stoker wrote, which is a gothic novel. But I do think that we're doing something slightly different with this, not just in the form of storytelling, that being an audio book But also in even in the casting. Everyone's awesome, by the way, we've got such a good cast, but one of my favorite people in this is Maggie Gyllenhaal as Van Helsing. She does something so different with this that is so kick-a--, man. She's awesome with it. So, I think there's so many little things like that that just allows a new interpretation, while keeping that baseline of something that feels true to Bram Stoker's masterpiece. David Jonsson has broken out as a major rising star in the past few years with his roles in Alien: Romulus and The Long Walk, and was recently confirmed to be joining the cast of Black Panther III. His Dracula character, Dr. Seward, is one of three suitors pursuing Lucy Westenra (only two in the Audible adaptation). But Seward's role is expanded in other ways in this audio production. In Jonsson's full interview with ScreenRant for Dracula, he also shared: "I think Dr. Seward as a character is incredibly complex. He's a man of science who's struggling because nothing about this world is scientific, and everything about this world is supernatural, and therefore it feels kind of coming of age to me, which I really enjoyed." But Jonsson particularly highlighted Van Helsing, the only character who rivals Count Dracula himself in terms of charisma. In the original story, the polymath and doctor arrives at the request of Seward, his former student, to weigh in on Lucy's sickness. Van Helsing realizes she has been attacked by a vampire and is able to inform the rest of the cast what they are up against. Other noteworthy adaptations that play on Van Helsing's character's mythology include Hugh Jackman's 2004 cult classic Van Helsing — following Van Helsing as a monster hunter in a different confrontation with Dracula — and the manga and anime Hellsing — which focuses on a vampire and monster-fighting organization founded by and named after Van Helsing. The 2026 Dracula is now available on Audible. This production's reimagined script was written by Robyn Ahern, with an original score by Ilan Eshkeri and direction by Mary Lambert, of 1989's Pet Cemetery fame. Dracula