The Munsters' Cast and Characters Behind the Rob Zombie Reboot (2025)

Rob Zombie's reboot of The Munsters is intended, first and foremost, as a love letter to the original TV series on which it's based. It's technically a prequel rather than a reboot since it details the origins of the show's spooky family and how Herman and Lily Munster first met. While the Munsters' son Eddie has not yet been born and their "normal" niece Marilyn has not yet come to stay with them, the other main characters from the show are all in attendance. Below is a quick breakdown of each one, along with the actor playing them.

Sheri Moon Zombie Plays the Vampiric Matriarch Lily Munster

Sheri Moon Zombie is the longtime wife of director Rob Zombie. The two were married in 2002, and she has since starred in a number of her husband's movies, including House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, The Lords of Salem and Zombie's two Halloween movies. She plays Lily Munster (née Dracula), a vampire woman patterned after similar figures in movies like Dracula's Daughter. Like most of the Munster clan, her ghoulish appearance hides a pleasant and friendly soul: madly in love with her husband Herman and eager to "fit in" once they arrive at their home on 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

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Jeff Daniel Phillips Plays a Slightly Hipper Version of Herman Munster

Jeff Daniel Phillips is another regular of Rob Zombie's films, with prominent roles in Halloween II, The Lords of Salem and 3 From Hell, among other projects. He's perhaps best known for playing a caveman in a series of comedic GEICO ads, which resulted in the sitcom Cavemen that ran from 2007-2008. In The Munsters, he plays Herman Munster, the family father who directly resembles Boris Karloff's famous version of Frankenstein's monster. His version is a little hipper than the Herman on the original TV series, played by Fred Gwynne. Here, he sings in a band and performs stand-up comedy before settling down to a day job at a mortuary when they move to America.

Daniel Roebuck Plays Grandpa Munster, Lily's Disapproving Father

Grandpa Munster was the Dracula stand-in on the TV series, sporting evening wear and a black cloak evocative of Bela Lugosi. His official name was "Sam Dracula" in the show, while the new movie refers to him as "The Count." Unofficially, he's just Grandpa. His age was a recurring joke in the series, as was a laboratory in the cellar from which he conducted various ill-conceived experiments. Both gags are recreated for the movie. Unlike the series, where he lives happily with the family, he's portrayed as actively opposing the marriage of his daughter Lily to Herman in the new film. He's played by Daniel Roebuck, another Zombie regular, with roles in the two Halloween movies, 3 From Hell and The Devil's Rejects. Before that, he made prominent appearances in 1993's The Fugitive and 2003's Agent Cody Banks, among others.

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Sylvester McCoy Is Igor in Pre-Bat Form

Igor was technically a pet in the Munsters TV series: a vampire bat who flitted around the family's home and was seemingly able to understand them when they spoke to him. The new movie reveals the background behind it all. He begins as Grandpa's faithful servant and is transformed into a bat for their trip to America. He's played by Sylvester McCoy, a veteran Scottish actor making his first appearance in a Rob Zombie picture. He's perhaps best known as the seventh Doctor in the long-running Doctor Who TV series, as well as Radagast the Brown in Peter Jackson's movie trilogy of The Hobbit. He's no stranger to classic monsters either, having made a prominent early appearance in 1979's Dracula with Frank Langella.

Richard Brake Plays a Double Role as Count Orlok and Dr. Wolfgang

Richard Brake's two characters are new to The Munsters, though both are based on classic monster tropes. Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang is the mad scientist who creates Herman, an open riff on Dr. Victor Frankenstein played for comedic effect. He also portrays Count Orlok, patterned after Max Schrek's vampire in the original Nosferatu and shown here as an inept, rat-loving would-be suitor to Lily. Superhero fans will recognize Brake as Joe Chill in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. He's played similar roles in Hannibal Rising, Kingsman: The Secret Service and Thor: The Dark World, as well as appearing in Zombie's Halloween II.

RELATED: Why The Munsters Are Still Relevant Over 50 Years Later

Tomas Boykin Plays Lily's No-Good Brother Lester

Lester Dracula is a werewolf, patterned after Lon Chaney Jr.'s famous performance in 1941's The Wolf Man. He appeared in only one episode of the original series -- Season 1, Episode 15, "Herman's Rival" -- which the new movie develops and expands upon. In both cases, he's portrayed as a spendthrift hustler who talks Herman into signing over considerable amounts of money for his harebrained schemes. He's played by Tomas Boykin, a veteran horror actor who also appeared in Zombie's 3 From Hell.

Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson Plays Barbara the Realtor

Barbara is a Southern California realtor who sells the Munsters their new home on 1313 Mockingbird Lane at the end of the movie. The role is a cameo for Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Her persona is patterned after the same alluring vampire women who inspired Lily. As Elvira, Peterson served as the long-running host of Movie Macabre, a precursor to Mystery Science Theater 3000 that featured dubious horror and sci-fi movies that she was perennially putting down.

The Munsters is currently streaming on Netflix.