Marvel’s Halloween special brings werewolves to the MCU
Marvel Studios will celebrate spooky season with a new Halloween-themed special coming to Disney Plus called Werewolf by Night. The special will focus on the Marvel Comics character Werewolf by Night, who is a literal werewolf, and will star Gael García Bernal in the title role.
At D23, Marvel Studios gave fans their first look at the “special presentation” dropping on Disney Plus this October. The first trailer for Werewolf by Night is in black and white, and oozes grindhouse movie vibes. The special seems to be themed around a hunt, with the titular werewolf hiding among a group of supernatural hunters. (It also appears to draw some inspiration from the popular social deduction game Werewolf...)
Michael Giacchino, who is likely better known for his soundtrack-composing skills than his directorial talents, will direct the special. Joining García Bernal in the Disney Plus Halloween special is actor Laura Donnelly (The Nevers, Outlander), who will reportedly play the monster-hunting hero Elsa Bloodstone.
Werewolf by Night will also bring another longtime supernatural Marvel Comics character to the MCU: Man-Thing, the part-man, part-plant swamp monster who debuted in Marvel’s Savage Tales #1 in 1971.
García Bernal will seemingly play the original version of the character Werewolf by Night, who was named — no giggling, please — Jack Russell. In the Marvel comics, Russell hailed from Transylvania and descended from a line of lycanthropy-affected ancestors. But the phrase “Werewolf by Night” greatly predates the character of the same name; Marvel Comics predecessor Atlas Comics published a short story by that name in the pages of Marvel Tales in 1953.
Werewolf by Night comes to Disney Plus on Oct. 7.
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