Today Disney Plus has unleashed a feature-length (per Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences standards) stand-alone special bringing a new world of beasts into the MCU. Werewolf by Night introduces the monster-human hybrid into Marvel’s Cinematic Universe in what’s billed as the first-ever ‘Marvel Studios Special Presentation’.
After much deliberation by co-executive producer Brian Gay, Werewolf by Night was a story they could only tell in a new format.”We’d always wondered: where could we introduce Werewolf by Night?”, Gay said in an interview with ComicBook, “We love the character. What feels right? And of course, movie, TV show, series, different length of series, but Disney+ lets us be very flexible with what we do.”
It turns out the hour-long special, in spite of the obvious resemblance to Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein and Claude Rains’ The Invisible Man, is actually inspired by holiday classics.
“One of the things that had always come up is we love a good old network special, something like Charlie Brown’s Christmas or Frosty the Snowman, things like that that were specials and they show once, or maybe they show every year. And we said, ‘Well, could we do one of those?’ And it turns out the answer was yes. And that’s where Werewolf by Night came from.”
The first proper horror monster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a risky yet exciting shift, opening doors to hundreds of stories to be told in the future. Gay says this is “a fun way to introduce the Werewolf by Night character, the concept of monsters in the MCU, but do it so there’s just a tease,” he said, “So you get excited, and you get into it, and then we’ll see what it becomes. Because if you watch the special, monsters have been around for centuries. So this is just the taste. This is the first time we’re peeling back that curtain.”
The 53-minute one-off shows the story of Gael Farcía Bernal’s Jack Russell, a lycanthropic superhero cursed by his bloodline to become particularly hairy when the moon is full. Werewolf by Night also introduces other supernatural creatures, including the monstrous Man-Thing, the zombie Ulysses Bloodstone, and his very much alive (but still a monster) daughter, Elsa Bloodstone.
Werewolf by Night is now streaming on Disney+, just in time for Howl-o-ween.