Menu

Search
Shop

Vincent Cassel Plays the Stonemason Who Might Have Inspired Quasimodo in Netflix’s the Hunchback, Soul of Paris

By

Updated

Vincent Cassel listening at a press conference at the 79th Cannes Film Festival

A doctor hunting for a cholera cure wants to experiment on Vincent Cassel’s hunchbacked stonemason in The Hunchback, Soul of Paris. With Paris facing an epidemic and revolution in 1830, the man he’s pursuing risks his life to protect a dancer he loves.

"Histoires Parallèles" (Parallel Tales) Photocall - The 79th Annual Cannes Film Festival
Vincent Cassel joins Thierry Frémaux and Pierre Niney at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes for the “Histoires Parallèles” photocall on May 15, 2026. Photo by Aurore Marechal / Getty Images.

Benjamin Voisin plays the doctor, while Karim Leklou plays the director of the Sûreté, who’s also pursuing Cassel’s character. Director Jean-François Richet places that pursuit inside a story about class, medical power and the people subjected to it.

The French film imagines the life of a man who might’ve inspired Victor Hugo’s Quasimodo. Richet drew on archivist Adrian Glew’s suggestion that the character was based on a stonemason Hugo encountered. That connection is a premise for the fiction, rather than a confirmed biography.

Netflix rates the film TV-MA and classifies it as a drama and period piece; its official trailer also carries a Gothic tag. Directed by Richet from a screenplay by Éric Besnard and Edgar Marie, The Hunchback, Soul of Paris arrives on Netflix on November 27, 2026.

"Histoires Parallèles" (Parallel Tales) Photocall - The 79th Annual Cannes Film Festival
Vincent Cassel joins Thierry Frémaux and Pierre Niney at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes for the “Histoires Parallèles” photocall on May 15, 2026. Photo by Aurore Marechal / Getty Images.
Vincent Cassel Plays the Stonemason Who Might Have Inspired Quasimodo in Netflix's the Hunchback, Soul of Paris
Vincent Cassel Plays the Stonemason Who Might Have Inspired Quasimodo in Netflix's the Hunchback, Soul of Paris
Vincent Cassel Plays the Stonemason Who Might Have Inspired Quasimodo in Netflix's the Hunchback, Soul of Paris
Vincent Cassel Plays the Stonemason Who Might Have Inspired Quasimodo in Netflix's the Hunchback, Soul of Paris
Vincent Cassel Plays the Stonemason Who Might Have Inspired Quasimodo in Netflix's the Hunchback, Soul of Paris
Vincent Cassel Plays the Stonemason Who Might Have Inspired Quasimodo in Netflix's the Hunchback, Soul of Paris
1 / 7

Meet the author

January Nelson is a writer, editor, and dreamer. She writes about astrology, games, love, relationships, and entertainment. Her favorite horror movies tend to be more on the artsy side.

Keep reading