Michael Giacchino reveals that Marvel Studios let him get bloody with Werewolf By Night. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become incredibly successful, thanks to its diverse roster of characters and consistent, crowd-pleasing output. When Iron Man was first released in 2008, there was no telling how far the franchise would go or how it would change over the years. By 2022, there have been thirty films and multiple television shows in the expanding franchise, and there are no signs of it slowing down.
One MCU fan criticism has been that the films and television shows do not take much risk with trying to branch out from the franchise’s typical, humorous tone and light characters. Before the film rights returned to Marvel and Disney, Fox’s X-Men franchise was notable in trying to experiment with more audacious genres. R-rated films such as Logan told a more dramatic, Western-inflected story about the character of Wolverine, Deadpool took its crass comedy over the edge, and The New Mutants tried to appeal to the young-adult horror crowd. Meanwhile, under Disney, Marvel has sometimes been seen as playing things too safe.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Giacchino, who directed the upcoming television special Werewolf By Night, revealed that Marvel Studios allowed him to go extra violent and bloody. He credits the producers with being open to his suggesting they up the gore, whether during filming or post-production, and says they trusted him to manage the project as he saw fit. Check out Giacchino’s comments below:
You know, it’s funny, they never [did], at least if they did, they never did to me directly. They were always very supportive, and just allowed me to keep pushing forward, because so many of my comments during reviews and things would be like, “Can we put more blood on that? Can we add more?” Or even when we were making the thing, I remember a couple of days before shooting one of the scenes going, “Hey, what would happen if if she cut his hand off? How do we do that?” Everyone was always just like, “Okay, well, let’s go for it.” So, I have to give them a lot of credit in that regard, that they really trusted me to do those things.
![Marvel Were Very Supportive Of Werewolf by Night’s Bloodier Action](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Werewolf-by-Night-Trailer(2).jpg)
Marvel Pulls No Punches For Horror-Centric Werewolf by Night
With the announcement of projects such as Deadpool 3 and Blade, there was concern over whether Marvel would try to evolve into doing R-rated projects, or stick those characters within the bounds of PG-13. It sounds like Giacchino had no such problems realizing his horror-genre vision with Werewolf By Night. The special’s journey to the screen has been a long one, with a feature film having been announced as far back as 2001. After years stuck in development hell, the character ended up in limbo before suddenly getting a television special for Disney+, put into development in 2021. Giacchino approached Kevin Feige about Werewolf By Night to produce the special with the intent to do something new with the character – rather than a straightforward Marvel adventure, he opted to go for a classic, black-and-white horror film look as an ode to the
With Giacchino confirming the special will feature blood and gore and that he was allowed to go as far as he could with it, Werewolf By Night will certainly offer something for those who are looking for a Marvel film or television show that pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable in an MCU project, especially one on Disney+. This also shows that the studio is willing to break free from safe restraints and try more risqué ideas in future productions. While social media is already praising Werewolf By Night for this, audiences will get a chance to see for themselves how the violence plays out October 7.
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