One of the first questions people ask when there’s a new Marvel TV show with a new Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) character is inevitably, “where does this fit in the Marvel timeline?” Werewolf by Night is no different.
Director Michael Giacchino is acutely aware of this phenomenon and in an interview with Collider he explained his position on the whole timeline thing. Turns out Giacchino didn’t even really consider how the show would impact the rest of the MCU.
The director said he treated it kind of like an episode of the classic show The Twilight Zone — something contained in itself that wouldn’t have any consequential bearing on the rest of the universe. He said that when he talked with higher-ups about it, the timeline thing wasn’t much of an issue.
“We never had that discussion. We never talked about what this meant for past, present, or future within the Marvel Universe. The one thing we all agreed on is it takes place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes, it’s in there. We never say when, how or why. That was a big choice that we just said… I felt like they have done so brilliantly this whole interweaving connecting world between all of these characters over the past how many years. And I didn’t know how to improve upon that. I didn’t know how to make that better or bring something new to that.”
That’s not a bad thing, as Giacchino said Marvel gave him a lot leeway with the main characters Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal) and Elsa (Laura Donnelly), and that the Marvel universe wouldn’t restrict what they could or couldn’t do.
The more he thought about it, Giacchino said, he knew it was going to be “one night in the life of Jack and Elsa,” and he decided that would be the focus.
“Then from there, who knows? We’ll see what we do. We’ll see where it goes. We’ll see how we play it all out. But I didn’t feel the need to worry about any of that at this point. And they certainly weren’t mandating that I did, which I love that I thought that gave us a freedom to do something different and do something new.”
This approach “uncuffed him” and let him just make the show and put off “those questions,” which he said would be dealt with “at some point.” He revealed he hasn’t had any conversations with Marvel about the larger timeline, but that “These are the discussions that I do hope to have.”
At the end of the day, however, it’s Giacchino in the driver’s seat.
“[It’s] my idea of how this fits in. It’s my version of where this all goes because I did need that in order to of push this through. But it wasn’t something that we or I felt needed to be a part of this. It was just more for me as I was making it.”
Werewolf by Night is currently streaming on Disney Plus.