As Marvel fans around the world are gearing up for the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, something far more sinister is brewing just below the surface. Marvel’s Werewolf by Night is set to drop on Disney+ this week, and marks a stark change from anything previously connected to the franchise.
This ‘Marvel Studios Special Presentation’ is a black-and-white supernatural horror akin to classic Hollywood monster movies like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and, most obviously, The Wolf Man. Disney’s synopsis for the film teases a “dark and macabre” setting as a group of monster hunters are thrust into a deadly competition for a powerful relic and ultimately come face to face with a dangerous monster.
Starring Gael García Bernal, Werewolf by Night centres on troubled lycanthrope Jack Russell as he fights evil using the abilities given to him by a curse passed down through his bloodline. Marvel kingpin Kevin Feige described the film as an “unusual, fun and frightening spin on the supernatural” and insists the character – though clearly worlds away from the rest of Marvel’s output – will “ultimately become quite important to the future of the MCU.”
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Oscar winning composer Michael Giacchino is at the helm in his first outing in the director’s chair, having previously composed many acclaimed scores for Marvel, DC, and Pixar, as well as television series Lost and the Call of Duty franchise. In a new behind-the-scenes featurette, Michael said Werewolf by Night is “a giant mash-up love letter to all of these old [monster] movies that I lived on growing up.”
“Some of the scariest things I saw as a kid were just the shadows of things,” Michael explained. “All the awful things you hear. For us, that was the goal.
“It’s time to put something different out into the world, and it’s going to be so cool.”
If you go into the film expecting web-slinging, iron-clad heroes or patriotic all-American musclemen, you will be sorely disappointed. Werewolf by Night promises to be a dark, spooky and no doubt bloody adaptation of a lesser-known Marvel comic book.
Werewolf by Night drops on Disney+ on Friday, October 7.
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