Issa Lopez confirms she’s making a werewolf Western with Guillermo del Toro

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Last week, Shudder gave writer/director Issa López's horrific fairy tale TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID (pictured above) a limited theatrical release in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto. A wider release is supposed to come along, and while I wait around for my chance to see TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID I'm already looking forward to a different project that López is working on.

Word has been going around for some months that López is developing a supernatural Western for producer Guillermo del Toro that may or may not involve werewolves. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, López confirmed that she and del Toro are working together on a werewolf Western.

I have a movie with Guillermo del Toro, who not only became a champion of TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID but said, ‘What are you going to do next? Let’s do something!'. I could not believe that. So, we’re prepping a werewolf movie, a supernatural Western. It’s a werewolf-Western! I’m super excited. He has the script, I wrote it, he loves it, and we’re gearing up to make it. The thing is, there’s not really that many brilliant, brilliant werewolf movies. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is the big one. I think it’s time to revisit. It’s about revisiting the essence of what it is, which is trying to contain the beast in you. It’s as simple as that, and I think that’s perfectly relatable with humankind, and particularly the moment that we’re living in."

Now I'm hyped, because I love when the horror and Western genres get mixed together, and when you add in werewolves and the involvement of del Toro it gets even more enticing.

López didn't give any further details on her werewolf Western, but we know that TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID is horror-fantasy blend that focuses on

the dire plight of children orphaned by Mexico’s brutal drug wars. Desperate and alone, 10-year-old Estrella (Paolo Lara) is one of those lost children. Given three magical wishes, Estrella asks first that her missing mother return, which she does… from the dead. Estrella flees to the streets and finds a new surrogate family — a boy named Shine (Juan Ramón López) and a gang of orphans who sleep on rooftops — but she soon discovers that the past and the dead never truly leave us behind.

We'll keep you updated on what López and del Toro are up to as more information is made available.