The Marvel Pitch That Kevin Feige Never Saw Coming

Deep-cut fans of Marvel Comics have likely begun several pertinent conversations with the following question: if you could adapt any Marvel character, no matter how obscure, into a live-action feature film, which one would you choose? These conversations were mostly held during the 2010s heyday of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, when most of the company's star characters had already been given the cinematic treatment. Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, and the Avengers were all taken, and even some more obscure characters, like the Guardians of the Galaxy, were being given the A-list polish, so Marvel fans had to get creative in their nerdy, self-indulgent postulations. 

Personally, I have already written a treatment (which I sent to Marvel many years ago) for the obscure MarvelUK character Motormouth, a foul-mouthed punk rock teen (real name: Harley Davis) who finds a pair of magical sneakers that allow her to leap between dimensions. I would also love to see a feature film starring the Awesome Slapstick, a living cartoon with a mallet and a sick sense of humor. 

After the release of "Avengers: Endgame" in 2019, Marvel Studios seems to have opened their doors all the way, and allowed several new, strange characters onto the scene. Moon Knight had a TV series. The Eternals were in a feature film. M.O.D.O.K. finally made an appearance. 

The weirdest pitch of all, however, at least according to Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige, was when Michael Giacchino approached him about making a TV movie based on the obscure 1972 character Werewolf By Night. Giacchino talked about his short in the making-of documentary "Director By Night," currently available on Disney+, and he said that Feige was genuinely shocked at his proposal. Not an easy thing to do after "Guardians of the Galaxy." 

Giacchino, it should be noted, is better known for his musical scores than his directing. He won an Academy Award for his work on "Up," and has composed exhilarating scores for many super-high-profile films like "The Incredibles," the "Mission: Impossible" movies, a few "Star Trek" movies, a few "Star Wars" movies, a few MCU movies, a few "Jurassic World" movies, and, of course, "The Book of Henry." Prior to "Werewolf By Night," Giacchino's only directorial efforts were a short called "Monster Challenge" in 2018 and a 2019 animated episode of "Star Trek: Short Treks." "Werewolf By Night," while only a 53-minute TV special, was to be his highest-profile directing gig to date. 

And it was kind of a dream project. It was Feige who approached Giacchino about the possibility of directing a Marvel project, and Giacchino had just the project in mind. He recalled his conversation thus: 

"I was just talking with Kevin one day and he was like, 'There's a lot happening. If there was anything you'd want to direct, what would you want to do?' [...] I remember saying, 'I like the fringe characters. I like the ones that are off the beaten path because you can do more interesting things with them. So ... Werewolf by Night. It was a Marvel comic I had as a kid [and] I loved it.' He looked at me like, 'Werewolf by Night? Wow ... okay ...'"

It was an odd choice. Werewolf by Night is not a well-known character except amongst a few fringe-dwelling Marvel readers. It was part of a wave of Marvel horror comics that were very in vogue in the 1970s, a wave that included "Dracula Lives!," "Monsters Unleashed!," "Tales of the Zombie," and "The Legion of Monsters." 

After "Avengers: Endgame," general interest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has waned, which was a sad irony, given that the sheer volume of Marvel content exploded. Phase IV of the MCU contained more raw hours of material than the previous three phases combined. As such, many audience members began to tune out; there was just too much homework. It didn't seem pertinent to see something like "Echo" in order to understand the vast tapestry of the universe. 

As such, many may have missed "Werewolf by Night," presented like a Halloween special. In the film, a group of legendary monster hunters — all of them new to the MCU — were gathered in a remote mansion to compete for the Bloodstone, a powerful widget that is only wielded by the leader of the monster hunters. One of the monster hunters, Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal), is actually a werewolf, a fact unbeknownst to the other monster hunters. He's participating in the Bloodstone content not to win leadership of the hunters, but to sneak into the mansion's backyard and free Man-Thing, a giant swamp beast that has been hiding back there. 

None of the events of "Werewolf by Night" have been referred to in any other MCU projects, however, so it may be one of the MCU's most forgotten chapters (although more people watched it than, say, "Helstrom"). Given the contracting state of the MCU, it seems increasingly unlikely that we'll ever see the character — or Man-Thing — ever again. At least "Werewolf by Night" was a fun romp, even if it didn't amount to much in the broad Marvel scheme. 

Now, "Motormouth" on the other hand ... THAT'S a classic in the making.