Jim Henson's Grendel?!?

John Gardner's novel Grendel (1971 CE) is slated for a live-action screen adaptation from Jim Henson Company, and is currently in pre-production.

For those of you who haven't read this NorsePlay novel, Gardner retells Beowulf from the monster's viewpoint. While spiteful & envious, Grendel as a character is given a more empathetically tragic narrative in his fateful defeat. The book's a successful exercise in internally departing from the story, but it's of course limited by Grendel's death, so you miss out on the latter two-thirds of the original epic poem's plot as a big drawback.

The above concept art seems more of a lion-wolf hybrid, which'll be voiced by Jeff Bridges. I'd hope for a practical effects creature from Jim Henson's son Bryan, but have to imagine there might be some CGI augmentation when needed to surpass mechanical/performative limitations.

Other notables are Dave Bautista as Beowulf, and Bryan Cranston as King Hrothgar. If the audience is to be unduly swayed to the side of the hateful mere-dweller, then we can expect Bautista to amplify Beowulf's ego, and Cranston's to pump up the ruler's hubris both to a point where the monster's somehow more relatable. We'll see how they play this if production happens and the above casting holds, and hope to the Gods there's no Muppet-y musical numbers.

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Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.