You probably recognize the name Michael Giacchino; as a composer, he has been racking up some incredible credits over the last few decades – he even scored the movie The Incredibles! He frequently works on J.J. Abrams / Bad Robot projects, and other high profile movies like Jurassic World and The Batman. Soon we’ll know him as a director as well, as The Wrap reports that Giacchino has signed on to direct the Marvel / Disney+ Halloween special Werewolf by Night. It has never been said just how long Werewolf by Night will be, but The Wrap is describing this as Giacchino’s feature directorial debut. I wasn’t expecting it to have a feature-length running time. I think The Wrap might be mistaken about that.
Werewolf by Night begins filming later this month, with Gael García Bernal in the lead.
When bringing Werewolf by Night to the screen, Marvel has two different versions of the character to choose from:
The first, Jack Russell, was created by Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog based on concepts by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas, and first appeared in a 1972 issue of Marvel Spotlight. Russell starred in an ongoing Werewolf by Night series that ran for 43 issues and ended in 1977. Russell is a descendant of the mystically-altered offshoot of humans known as Lycanthropes, who eventually becomes capable of transforming on his own volition even without a full moon, and retaining his intellect while transformed. Among other things, that series is notable for having the first appearance of Moon Knight, a character whose own Disney+ series, starring Oscar Isaac, will stream in 2022.
Marvel introduced a second incarnation of the character, Jake Gomez, last year in Werewolf by Night (Vol. 3) #1. Created by the writing team of Taboo, Benjamin Jackendoff and Scot Eaton, Gomez, a teenage member of the Hopi Native American tribe whose family has been cursed with lycanthropy, comes in conflict with a nefarious pharmaceutical company exploiting members of the tribe.
Giacchino previously directed the short film Monster Challenge and an episode of the animated series Star Trek: Short Treks. He worked with Marvel on Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.