Werewolf by Night Director Michael Giacchino Compares It To Twilight Zone

Werewolf by Night director Michael Giacchino compares the Marvel special to The Twilight Zone. Giacchino is perhaps better known as an Academy Award-winning film composer, having recently composed scores for Thor: Love and Thunder, Lightyear, Jurassic World Dominion, The Batman, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. The prolific composer has also ventured behind the camera on the short film Monster Challenge and an episode of Star Trek: Short Treks, though Werewolf by Night will be his biggest project as a director to date.

As the first special presentation set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Werewolf by Night follows a secret cabal of monster hunters who, following the death of their leader Ulysses Bloodstone, reunite at Bloodstone Manor to participate in a dangerous competition for a powerful artifact. Mozart in the Jungle's Gael García Bernal leads the cast as the titular lycanthrope, Jack Russell, alongside The Nevers star Laura Donnelly as Elsa Bloodstone and Frasier's Harriet Sansom Harris as Verusa. The Werewolf by Night trailer revealed that the special will be unlike anything Marvel Studios has done before, which fans wondering about how it connects to the larger MCU.

During a recent interview with Uproxx, Giacchino explained how Werewolf by Night fits into the MCU. Based on his explanation, it sounds like the special is an independent story. To help explain its self-contained quality, the director compared Werewolf by Night to the anthological nature of The Twilight Zone. Read what Giacchino said below:

That was the key from the very beginning to say that, look, we’re just going to do something that begins here and ends here. I’m not worried about what happens before or after. I’m just worried about this. It’s one night in the life of Elsa and Jack, and let’s do that. It’s like a Twilight Zone episode. So that means we need to tell the whole story here. And anything that is not relevant, we don’t worry about. And that way people can jump in, enjoy it for what it is, and then we’ll see where it goes. We’ll see what happens. Maybe they’ll be more, maybe there won’t. I don’t know! We’re going to figure that out as we go. But, right now, it was just about telling this one simple story.

You watch The Twilight Zone and every single one, you didn’t need to see any other Twilight Zone as long as you just get there at the beginning and watch it and see what happens. And I felt like there’s so much connectivity going on in the MCU at the moment that I just felt like introducing new characters – introducing a whole new world of characters and all the horror universe – it was just too much to ask. To then also want to connect it to Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Captain America, whatever. And Kevin agreed always. And that’s why the show starts with that image, that silhouette of The Avengers, and says, look, this is the known universe, but what about the darkness? Here, let’s go explore something we don’t know. And so that’s why we did that. And it seems to work. People seem to have fun. And we also had mythology on our side in terms of you say, “Werewolf,” people inherently understand what that is.

How Will Werewolf by Night Factor Into The MCU?

Based on Giacchino's explanation, it sounds like Werewolf by Night will act as a standalone entry into the MCU. The comparison to an episode of The Twilight Zone, which each function as a self-contained story, indicates the Marvel Halloween special won't be connected much to the rest of the MCU and its heroes. Werewolf by Night will, however, feature members of the Time Variance Authority, the protectors of the Sacred Timeline previously introduced in Loki.

Giacchino's recent remarks are in stark contrast to Kevin Feige's comments about Werewolf by Night who said the special is "quite important to the future of the MCU." The Marvel Studios president was talking specifically about the "world" in which Werewolf by Night is set, possibly referring to the supernatural side of the MCU which will be explored further in Blade, starring Mahershala Ali as the titular vampire hunter. Still, Giacchino's comments are a strong indication that both MCU fans and the uninitiated will be able to jump straight into Werewolf by Night and enjoy the Halloween special when it premieres October 7 on Disney+.

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Source: Uproxx