Who Is Werewolf By Night? Marvel’s Halloween Special Character Explained

Gael García Bernal has been cast as the lead of the MCU’s Halloween Special, rumored to be all about Werewolf by Night – and here’s who he is.

You Are Reading :Who Is Werewolf By Night Marvels Halloween Special Character Explained

The Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps expanding, and its latest addition is Werewolf by Night – and here’s everything you need to know about the lead of Marvel’s Halloween Special. The superhero genre has become very popular in recent years and it has a lot to thank the MCU for. Marvel’s connected universe has been dominating the big screen for years, and now with its Phase 4, it’s branching out to streaming with TV shows that are connected to the movies, and among its many upcoming projects is a Halloween Special.

Following the steps of James Gunn’s The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Marvel is taking over another holiday with a Halloween Special, but it hasn’t revealed much about this particular project. This still-untitled Halloween project was announced in August 2021 and will be released on Disney+ like the rest of the MCU’s TV shows, and although details about it weren’t revealed, it was said that Marvel was looking for a Latino actor to play the lead role – and they were right, as Gael García Bernal has now been cast.

Plot details on the MCU’S Halloween special are unknown, but it’s rumored to be based on Werewolf by Night and possibly the Midnight Sons, and García Bernal is said to be playing Werewolf by Night – but who is this character, what does he do, and how does he connect to the Midnight Sons?

Werewolf By Night’s Origins In Marvel Comics Explained

As it happens with many other characters in the universe of Marvel Comics, Werewolf by Night is a title that has been used by different characters, in this case, Jack Russell and Jake Gomez. Jack Russell was created by Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Mike Ploog, and made his debut in Marvel Spotlight #2 in 1972. Jack’s family has a history of lycanthropy, going all the way back to 1795 with Grigori Russoff, who got the curse through Lydia, a werewolf imprisoned by Dracula. The curse was passed on and one of his descendants was Jack Russell, who found out about it shortly before his 18th birthday. Following the death of his mother after a car crash – as she was targeted by a criminal organization known as the Committee, who sent Max Grant to kill her – Jack began to use his condition and slew Grant, and after his stepfather (and uncle) sold the family’s castle, he moved to an island off the California coast, where he battled a motorcycle gang and infected its members.

After that, Jack Russell encountered a variety of Marvel characters, such as Frankenstein Monster, Moon Knight (who captured him as tasked by the Committee but eventually set him free), Ghost Rider, Morbius, and even Iron Man, who he joined to go against Maggia’s Masked Marauder and his Tri-Animan. Then there’s Jake Gomez, created by Taboo, Benjamin Jackendoff, and Scot Eaton, and who made his first appearance in Werewolf by Night #1 in 2020. Jake Gomez is a young boy of Hopi descent who first transformed into a werewolf when he was 13 as a result of a family curse. With the help of his grandmother and sister, Jake got to control his emotions while transformed, and even though he was warned about the government going after superheroes, he still did the right thing when he found out that two vehicles from the company he worked at had the people who had gone missing from the Rez in the past month.

Werewolf By Night’s Powers & Abilities In Marvel Comics Explained

Marvel’s Werewolf by Night has the same characteristics as classic werewolves, but with time, some changes have been made. Jack Russell transforms into a large hybrid of human and wolf on the night of the full moon and the two nights surrounding it, and while in his werewolf shape, he loses his human intellect. However, as time has passed and more events have been added to his arc, Jack is now also capable of mutating voluntarily without a full moon and has more control of himself during these transformations. As a werewolf, Jack gains superhuman strength (and is stronger when transforming during a full moon), stamina, reflexes, speed, acute senses (he can see part of the infrared spectrum, smell other creatures from a distance and follow scents, and can hear the sound of a heartbeat in a cave), durability, regenerative healing factor, and his claws and teeth are extremely sharp and tough. All these powers also apply to Jake Gomez when he transforms.

Werewolf by Night is also an incredible hand-to-hand combatant even though he has no formal training, and has some expertise in dealing with the occult and supernatural forces, all through his experiences. The Werewolf also has his weaknesses, and they are the same as those of classic werewolves: objects and weapons made of silver. However, if he’s just injured by a silver weapon, he will take longer to heal from it, but if he receives what would be a fatal injury to a human with a silver-made weapon, he would die.

How Werewolf By Night Could Lead To The Midnight Sons

The Midnight Sons are a team of supernatural superheroes created by Howard Mackie and Andy Kubert. They made their first appearance in Ghost Rider #28 in 1992, where Ghost Rider received a vision where Lilith, Mother of All Demons, was resurrected and thus posed a great threat as she planned to use the Lilin, her demonic children, to take over Earth. Ghost Riders Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze then formed the team in order to battle her and her army, and so the Midnight Sons consisted of the Nightstalkers (Blade, Frank Drake, and Hannibal King), Morbius, Vengeance, and the Darkhold Redeemers (Sam Buchanan, Victoria Montesi, Louise Hastings, Modred the Mystic, and Jinx), all of them secretly brought together by Doctor Strange, who later joined them. At one point, Werewolf by Night joined the Midnight Sons, and he helped fellow members Morbius, Hellstrom, Jennifer Kale, and Man-Thing contain the zombie virus outbreak in the Marvel Zombies storyline.

Now, by the time the MCU’s Halloween Special is released, viewers will already be familiar with at least two potential members of the Midnight Sons: Doctor Strange and Morbius, while others like Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac) and Blade (Mahershala Ali) are expected to arrive sometime in 2022 and 2023, respectively. It’s still unknown if Moon Knight will be released before or after the Halloween Special, but as Werewolf by Night is being introduced in a special TV show (unless, of course, he makes a surprise appearance somewhere else before the Halloween Special comes out), he could be the one who makes way for the formation of the Midnight Sons once Moon Knight and Blade arrive, and so the MCU would see a very dark and peculiar team of heroes in Phase 5 and possibly beyond.

Werewolf By Night’s Potential Future In The MCU

With Werewolf by Night arriving through a Halloween Special and not exactly a proper TV series like Loki and Hawkeye (though plans for it can still change), fans are understandably confused over what the Werewolf’s future in the MCU could be. Being a “Halloween Special” makes it sound as a one-time-only adventure type of story, but it’s highly unlikely Marvel would go this far to introduce a character that has no future in this universe, more so one played by a popular actor as is Gael García Bernal, and with all the other Midnight Sons members also coming in the near future. Werewolf by Night could make an appearance in Blade to set up the Midnight Sons, and with Marvel developing a variety of TV shows, he could come back with more adventures that further establish the arrival of the Midnight Sons. Although unknown for now, the future of Werewolf by Night looks promising, and it could be a big step towards a completely different but exciting direction for the MCU.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/werewolf-by-night-origin-powers-comic-history-explained/