It was announced last year that Ryan Gosling had been cast in a reboot of The Wolfman, although nothing more has come of it since then. To give some idea of how he might look in the human form of the title role, though, a deepfake of the 2010 movie’s trailer swaps him in as the lead.
The horror flop had Benicio del Toro as an actor who found fame in America and returns to his family home in the rural south of England after the brutal death of his brother. Soon after, though, he himself is attacked by the same creature believed responsible for the killing, and becomes suspected by investigating police due to his history of mental illness, while also being informed by gypsies that he’s become cursed to transform into a werewolf.
Although it’s slightly surreal to hear Gosling speaking in Puerto Rican accent, the actor’s pristinely handsome features look well suited to the garb of a Victorian gentleman, as can be seen above.
The notion to reboot The Wolfman again came about on the back on the success of Blumhouse’s similar treatment of The Invisible Man, which reworked and updated the famous story’s core themes for modern viewers. As such, it’s entirely possible that Gosling’s outing as Larry Talbot will have a similarly contemporary setting, making the visual speculation of this trailer moot. Nevertheless, the Drive star has proven himself capable of whatever he puts his talent to, as well as being deliberately selective about the roles he takes on when he could have easily spent the last 20 years coasting by on his looks in Hollywood blockbusters.
Of all the Universal Monsters to have featured in classic horror films, The Wolfman is often forgotten alongside more notorious creatures like Dracula or Frankenstein’s Monster. If and when Gosling’s iteration of the cursed lycanthrope sees the light of the full moon, though, it’ll likely reintroduce the character to a new audience.
