Werewolf By Night Will Be Important To The MCU, Kevin Feige Says

Keeping up with every new development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe can be a daunting task, especially now that its interconnectivity not only flows through the movies, but an abundance of seemingly crucial television shows — and that's not even counting the non-Disney+ original programming. It's become so commonplace to expect the next Marvel thing that it's easy to lose track of the projects you're actually excited to see, rather than playing the long game of catch up.

While I'm very excited to see how Ryan Coogler pulled off the massive undertaking of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," the Marvel property that's piqued my interest the most since it was announced is "The Batman" composer Michael Giacchino stepping behind the camera to direct "Werewolf By Night." The MCU has already taken a quick dip into the world of horror with "Moon Knight" and especially "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," but this feels like the studio going buck wild with genre fare.

In a recent featurette for the upcoming special, Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige talks about how, in addition to expanding upon the MCU's take on the supernatural, "Werewolf by Night" will ultimately open up a whole new world as well:

"We wanted to explore entirely new characters and entirely new sides of the MCU with this unusual, fun, and frightening spin on the supernatural [...] We are introducing a world that will ultimately become quite important to the future of the MCU."

With more violent projects like "Blade" and "Deadpool 3" in the works, it appears that the MCU could be pushing its envelope in order to appeal to older audiences, maybe inching back toward the Marvel that put out "Punisher: War Zone" and "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance." After all, the only way for these Disney+ projects to evolve is to appeal to folks who aren't already on the Marvel train.

With brief appearances from Man-Thing and other creatures adorned on the wall, it makes me so happy that the MCU appears to be all-in on bringing their roster of monsters to the screen. Along with "Moon Knight," this feels like a great precursor to the world of "Blade."

While based on the Marvel Comics run of the same name, a large part of the reason why "Werewolf by Night" appealed to me as much as it did was because I'm a wholesale sucker for the Universal Classic Monsters movies of the '30s and '40s, and that is exactly the kind of aesthetic Giacchino is paying tribute to here. Given how much he adores those movies, I can't wait to see what he has in store.

Additionally, "Werewolf by Night" also marks the first entry into a new division of the MCU called "Marvel Studios' Special Presentation," which appears to be an outlet for the entertainment giant to experiment and test out new things without having to cram it into a theatrical or television series format. It can just exist on its own, giving the creative folks behind these projects the freedom to go wild without having to worry about the larger continuity at hand.

"Werewolf By Night" will premiere on Disney+ on October 7, 2022.