In “Werewolf By Night”, werewolf Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal) not only gets to deal with monster hunters, but also encounters a creature with an elephant trunk that goes by the name Ted and is known in the comics as Man-Thing.
“Werewolf By Night” is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on paper, but the new Marvel film doesn’t have much to do with the Avengers and other well-known MCU characters. But with werewolf Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal) and monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly), two well-known Marvel characters are at the centre of the action – and in the course of the plot a third character is added: a monster that at first glance looks like an elephant, behind which the iconic Marvel character Man-Thing is hidden.
In a way, Man-Thing is the Marvel counterpart to the DC monster Swamp-Thing, invented in the same period. In the Marvel comics, Man-Thing is originally the scientist Dr. Theodore “Ted” Sallis, who is tasked with recreating the super-soldier serum that Steve Rogers once used to become Captain America.
However, he injects himself with the immature drug and, after an accident in a mysterious swamp, becomes a gigantic plant creature through the serum and magic. From then on, he watches over the so-called Nexus Of All Realities, i.e. the junction of the various Marvel parallel dimensions.
In “Werewolf By Night” we learn that the MCU Man-Thing is also named Ted, so we can assume that this version of the character has a similar backstory. However, we don’t learn much more about the swamp creature, only that it and main character Jack apparently already know each other from previous adventures together.
WerewolfByNight is a delightful horror throwback that I can already see opening many new doors for the MCU. Michael Giacchino’s fantastic direction gave us awesome performances, a creepy atmosphere, wonderful practical make-up and visual effects… and OH MY GOD, MAN-THING!!!!! pic.twitter.com/nbj26QJxt5
– David Takes Manhattan (@happydragondave) October 7, 2022
AN IDEA FROM MCU MASTERMIND KEVIN FEIGE
But what is Man-Thing doing in “Werewolf By Night” anyway? The idea for it came from Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige, director (and composer!) Michael Giacchino told the site Fandom, and Feige put extra pressure on him because of his appreciation of the character and the comics that go with it.
And he deliberately didn’t want to show Werewolf-By-Night and Man-Thing as the film’s villains, Giacchino further explained: “Too often, even in Marvel movies, monsters are just there to be killed or defeated. But I think: No, monsters are nothing more than a person with a problem that that person can’t solve and needs help with.”
It can’t just always be about wanting to destroy different things, because there’s already enough of that in the world, Giacchino said. “I wanted to do something where we get to the core of it and understand what’s behind the monster. Why is this happening? No monster wants to be a monster. They don’t want to go around randomly killing people and destroying things. “
