To channel a certain DC character for a moment… It’s October 2022, Werewolf by Night has just released on Disney Plus. It is October 2023, Werewolf By Night has just released on Disney Plus.
Yes, the Marvel Studios Special Presentation has achieved the rare feat of being an MCU project to get two separate releases, with the original black-and-white special being followed up by Werewolf By Night In Color, a revamp that replaces the old-timey monochrome with lurid technicolor.
Writer/director Michael Giacchino might be threatening to make recuts of the same special a yearly thing — he’s eyeing up a 3-D version — but obviously what fans really want is a fresh tale for Gael Garcia Bernal’s Jack Garcia and the other heroes of the MCU’s supernatural side. But is a return for Jack, Laura Donnelly’s Elsa Bloodstone, and Man-Thing (aka the adorable Ted) actually on the cards?
Michael Giacchino has plans for more Werewolf By Night that’s “crazy and nuts”
Whether Werewolf by Night 2 could happen or not is difficult to say, as Marvel likes to keep its Halloween celebrations under even tighter wraps than an Egyptian mummy. Although it was heavily rumored for a while before hand, Marvel didn’t even officially announce the original WbN special until just a few weeks before it premiered. So if a second special is coming for Halloween 2024 then we probably won’t know for a long while yet.
On the plus side, we absolutely know that Giacchino would love to return to this well as he’s admitted he has no shortage of ideas for where to take these characters next. While speaking at a screening of Werewolf by Night in Color, the composer-turned-filmmaker teased that he has concepts for a sequel that are truly “crazy and nuts” that he hopes to make a reality “one day.”
“There’s always talk. But, you know, until somebody decides to spend a penny, nothing happens yet. So, hopefully. My wish is that, yes, there will be more with these characters. I would love to, and I have ideas of what I would love to do with them, and it’s all crazy and nuts, but I think that’s the only way to go about it. So, hopefully, one day. Hopefully, one day.”
As it happens, rumors have pointed to a different Special Presentation coming next Halloween, a Witches Road standalone from the team behind Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, so we might sadly be in for a bit of a wait until we can get another excellent adventure for Jack and Ted. At least in the meantime, we have not one, but two separate versions of Werewolf by Night to stream on Disney Plus when we’ve got a craving for some creepiness.