Marvel loves to play the long game when it comes to its titles; from the ten-year spanning Infinity Saga to its small screen universe, the majority of its content links into something else. Werewolf by Night, a new TV film centering on monster hunter Jack Russell, stands alone – but it's still set to spark a new line of anthology-style specials "within" the MCU.
"It was perfect for me," director Michael Giacchino tells SFX magazine in its upcoming spooky season issue, which appropriately features Halloween Ends on the cover. "Because I wanted to do something in the vein of a really fun episode of The Twilight Zone or The Night Gallery," he adds, noting that studio president Kevin Feige is keen to have the black and white chiller be the first of a few one-and-done stories.
"We just had so much fun breaking the story together," Giacchino recalls. "I wanted to drop into one night in the life of Jack Russell to know what's it like being somebody like him. It was really just a lot of fun, because we weren't being pressured to create something massive."
Written by Peter Cameron and Hawkeye's Heather Quinn, Werewolf by Night sees Jack (Gael García Bernal) – harboring the fact that he's afflicted with a curse that sometimes transforms him into a beast – and several other slayers gather at Bloodstone Manor following their death of their leader. Soon, the group finds itself engaged in a deadly competition for a powerful relic, which promises to bring them face to face with a dangerous monster.
"The other fun thing was we weren't tasked with holding steadfast to the original comic, as great as it was," Giacchino adds. "Even though it looks like an old movie, I wanted to tell a slightly more modern story through the character and update him in a way that makes sense for all of us today. We decided to go in a slightly different, altered universe direction with it."
Werewolf by Night premieres on Disney Plus on Friday, October 7. Laura Donnelly appears as Elsa Bloodstone, while Harriet Sansom Harris stars as her estranged stepmother Verusa, the widowed wife of the gang's former captain, Ulysses. Al Hamacher, Leonardo Nam, Eugenie Bondurant, Kirk Thatcher, Jaycob Maya, and Daniel J. Watts round out the supporting cast.
The above is just a snippet of SFX's chat with Giacchino, published in the new Halloween Ends issue of SFX Magazine, which is out on newsstands from Wednesday, October 5. For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.
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