Marvel Studios has unleashed a new featurette for its Disney+ Halloween special, Werewolf by Night. In the short clip, the cast, creatives, and Marvel Studios President Kevin Fiege discuss the inspiration behind this creative shift within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As his first directorial feature, film composer Michael Giacchino (The Batman) describes Werewolf by Night as “a giant mashup love letter to all of these old movies which I absolutely loved and lived on growing up.” Shot in classic black and white, the special seeks to resemble the horror films of yesteryear as it tells the haunted tale of Marvel comics’ Jack Russell, played by Gael Garcia Bernal (Mozart in the Jungle). Originating in the 1970s, Russell comes from a family cursed by lycanthropy, causing him to transform into a werewolf every full moon.
“We want to explore entirely new characters, and entirely new sides, of the MCU with this unusual, fun, and frightening spin on the supernatural,” Feige said in the video. In addition to Bernal’s Russell, the special will introduce us to Elsa Bloodstone played by The Nevers’s Laura Donelly. Her character has been described as Marvel’s version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“It’s something brand new we’ve never seen in this universe before,” Donelly added.
Naturally, it seems this would be the next step in storytelling for the MCU with recent and future projects aiming to explore more mystical characters of comic lore. This year we received Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness revisiting the chaos magic and horror elements first introduced with Disney+’s WandaVision. Projects still slated for future phases include the witching spinoff series, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, and the upcoming vampire feature reboot, Blade.
“We’re introducing a world that will ultimately become quite important to the future of the MCU,” Feige said.
Werewolf by Night arrives Friday, October 8 only on Disney+. View the full trailer below.