When Guillermo del Toro doles out some praise it’s worth paying attention. The Oscar-winning director has a finely-tuned sense of quality for all things strange and spooky, and his newest recommendation is a new show that’s truly unlike anything we’ve previously seen: Boots Riley’s I’m a Virgo.
Following in the footsteps of the equally bizarre (and also awesome) Sorry to Bother You, this show follows a colossal 13 foot-tall teenager. Disaster tends to follow in his wake and his enormous stature has turned him into a local legend. Bubbling under all this are offbeat superhero vibes, with an Iron Man-inspired villain played by Walton Goggins, a woman with Barry Allen-esque superspeed, and a community of curiously tiny people.
Anyone who’s seen Sorry to Bother You will know that Riley can deliver some truly bonkers imagery and unexpected twists, and judging by the synopsis, it’s easy to see why del Toro is a fan.
Del Toro himself shows no signs of slowing down, either. He’ll soon appear in the upcoming Hideo Kojima documentary Connecting Worlds, is working on a stop motion adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Buried Giant, and has revived his long-planned adaptation of Frankenstein as a Netflix original. That last one boasts Oscar Isaac, Andrew Garfield, and Mia Goth amongst its cast, so we can’t wait to see how he approached Mary Shelley’s foundational science horror classic.
With a recommendation from del Toro under its belt, we’ll absolutely be checking out I’m a Virgo when it lands on Prime Video on June 23.