Werewolf by Night producer Stephen Broussard teased the future of the horror genre in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"Well, I will say that we're starting to introduce some cool characters that are in the darker side, the more monster side and the supernatural and the occult in a very organic way as you're seeing these characters pop up," Broussard told ComicBook.com. "I think in very organic ways, it feels like there could be ways to continue those stories in ways that feel very fresh and new and keeping our toe in that horror side of things."
Werewolf by Night stars Gael García Bernal as Jack Russell and Laura Donnelly as Elsa Bloodstone. It also saw the MCU debut of Theodore "Ted" Sallis/Man-Thing. In September 2022, Marvel Studios executive producer Brian Gay confirmed that the studio was already plotting out future stories featuring the Werewolf by Night cast.
The Future of Werewolf by Night
"I think one of the very cool things about the special is it's just peeling back the corner of monsters in the MCU, right?" he said at the time. "And I think, well, we don't know exactly where they'll pop up next, the idea is that, with this wide swath of different species and types, they're going to pop up again. You're going to see these guys in different ways, of course." At the time of writing, there have been no official announcements from Marvel Studios about the future of Werewolf by Night, though director Michael Giacchino has said he would "absolutely" want to do more with the characters.
Created by Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas and Mike Ploog, the first character to be called "Werewolf by Night" was Jack Russell, who appeared in the 1972's Marvel Spotlight #2 before starring in a Werewolf by Night series until 1977. The series is also notable for the first appearance of Moon Knight, who was played by Oscar Isaac in the Marvel Studios series of the same name.
In terms of the horror genre, Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, released in 2022, was described as "the first scary MCU movie." In a previous interview, Raimi said that he enjoyed bringing horror into the MCU with Multiverse of Madness. "I was able to take those horror films that I made in my youth and [use] what I had learned from them building suspense sequences, titillating the audience," Raimi said.
While Multiverse of Madness was released in May 2022, the Disney+ series Moon Knight was released in March of the same year and was similarly influenced by the horror genre, according to director Aaron Moorhead. Werewolf by Night in itself was inspired by "horror films of the 1930s and 1940s" and embraced the campy, black-and-white aesthetic of old horror movies.
Marvel Studios' Werewolf by Night is now streaming on Disney+.
Source: ComicBook.com