‘The Batman and ‘Up’ Composer Michael Giacchino is Reportedly Directing Marvel’s ‘Werewolf by Night’

Marvel Comics' 'Werewolf By Night.'

While he’s long established a career as a sought-after (and Oscar-winning) composer, Michael Giacchino is making a slightly surprising jump in the filmmaking world: he’s reportedly in the director’s chair for Marvels’ ‘Werewolf by Night’.

In case you’re sitting there thinking, ‘Whowolf By What?' Is this some newly announced Marvel Cinematic Universe movie whose existence passed me by?’ worry not. It’s actually a Halloween TV special movie that will debut on Disney+ later this year. The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter, though the story was originally broken by Daniel Richtman on twitter.

The special will adapt the hairy character, which has had a couple of different incarnations through the years.

‘Werewolf by Night’ was originally 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’.

The main character, Jack 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. He was popular enough that he starred in an ongoing ‘Werewolf by Night’ series that ran for 43 issues and ended in 1977.

Among other things, that series is notable for having the first appearance of the character Moon Knight, who will be brought to TV screens in the shape of Oscar Isaac, starting on Disney+ on March 30.

Composer Michael Giacchino at the 2019 Screen Music Awards

A second incarnation of the character, Jake Gomez, was introduced in 2020 via ‘Werewolf by Night (Vol. 3) #1’. Created by the writing team of Taboo (normally found making music with the Black Eyed Peas), Benjamin Jackendoff and Scot Eaton, Gomez, a 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.

Quite what the show itself will be remains as mystery since Marvel and Disney are typically loathed to give out details before official announcements. We do know, however, that ‘Old’ star Gael Garcia Bernal is on board for the lead in this one, leading us to speculate that it’ll focus more on the Gomez angle while incorporating elements of both versions, a little how Marvel TV brought Ghost Rider to ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’.

‘The Nevers’ Laura Donnelly, meanwhile, could be playing Nina Price, who becomes Vampire by Night. Price is the niece of character Jack Russell/Werewolf by Night and a vampire/werewolf hybrid. She carried the Lycan gene and was changed further after being bitten by a vampire.

And it’s not like Giacchino has zero experience as a director – he made a short called ‘Monster Challenge’, starring Patton Oswalt, which hit YouTube in 2020, and has also called the shots for an episode of ‘Star Trek: Short Treks’, which, as the title suggests, are short adventures for crews of the current ‘Trek’ series, including ‘Star Trek: Discovery’.

Meanwhile, he has more scores incoming, including ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’, Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ and ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, his next chunk of Marvel music.