Director Leigh Whannell is back with a refreshing reimagining of another iconic Universal Monsters character, the werewolf. Here’s everything we know about Wolf Man.
It looks like January 2025 will indeed see a bad moon rising with trouble on the way in the form of werewolves … old school werewolves. Leigh Whannell, director of The Invisible Man and the Saw and Insidious franchises, is back with another refreshing reimagining of an iconic Universal Monsters character, this time setting his sights on the werewolf. While Whannell’s Wolf Man will indeed be a reboot of the 1941 classic, it will not follow the same storyline. Instead of focusing on the werewolf itself, the story will hone in on those affected by the werewolf curse. I don’t know about you, but that’s enough to pique my interest and get my blood pumping. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming supernatural horror Wolf Man.
The plot of Wolf Man
In a nutshell, our story centers on a man who is forced to protect himself and his family as they are stalked, terrorized, haunted, and attacked by a werewolf.
When Blake inherits his childhood home–a remote cabin in the Oregon wilderness–from his missing-but-presumed-dead father, he takes his wife Charlotte and daughter Ginger there in hopes of reviving their deteriorating family unit. Once they arrive though, things get creepy when Blake is attacked by a lethal predatory animal lurking around the property.
To protect themselves, the family barricades inside the cabin. But as night falls and the full moon rises, Blake undergoes a strange transformation into a vicious, violent beast, making the family’s perceived safe space the one place they shouldn’t be. His transformation into a werewolf puts everyone, including his young daughter, in serious jeopardy, and that’s where our focus lies.
Will Blake be able to resist his predatory urges and not harm his wife and child? Will Charlotte have the strength and tenacity to fight him off should he attack her or their child? To what lengths will she have to go to fight him, and will she be capable of doing so? And who will survive to see the sun rise, if any survive at all?
The key cast of Wolf Man
Wolf Man’s key cast features Christopher Abbott (It Comes at Night) as Blake, Julia Garner (Ozark, Inventing Anna) as Charlotte, and Matilda Firth (Disenchanted) as Ginger.
Abbott is most notably known for 2020’s deeply disturbing psychological horror Possessor, and he also received a Golden Globe nomination for Catch-22. Seeing him play a lycanthrope will no doubt be interesting to explore, but I get the feeling he won’t be our main character here.
Garner is well known for her unforgettable, multi-award-winning role as Ruth Langmore in 2017’s Ozark. She proved herself the epitome of words like feisty and spitfire, so for me, the magic in this cast lies in Garner as a feisty mother desperate to protect her child from the vicious beast that used to be her husband. Honestly, she turns every role she plays into energized gold. Something tells me she will be our main character in Wolf Man with Blake serving a more supportive-turned-villainous role.
Is Wolf Man part of the Dark Universe?
Initially, Universal planned to produce a big-budgeted reboot of its Universal Monsters franchise under the title “Dark Universe”, but all future planned entries were nixed in favor of standalone horror-driven features after the first installment, the Tom Cruise-led The Mummy (2017), bombed in theaters.
Ever since the failure of Universal’s Dark Universe, the fate of its monsters has been somewhat unclear. The successful release of 2020’s The Invisible Man showed the studio that fans still wanted to see its classic monsters so long as they were given a fresh take and a modern twist. So, it stands to reason why Wolf Man has taken so long to arrive since its announcement in 2014. Blumhouse Productions and Universal are likely trying to find the best way to expand the universe without overreaching.
As of now, it isn’t known exactly how Whannell’s remake fits into a larger universe, or if it even does at all. The most likely scenario is that Wolf Man will be a singular work, and if it is a hit, well, we can all hope it could be tied to other films later on down the line.
Is Wolf Man related to The Invisible Man?
In a recent interview with Empire, Whannel explains how Wolf Man is related to his 2020 hit reboot of the Universal classic The Invisible Man. The director says he took a similar approach in the sense that he’s not attempting to make a throwback film but is instead attempting to do something radically different with a classic character … a refreshing reimagining. He also teases that while The Invisible Man may have been “horror adjacent”, Wolf Man fully leans into the genre.
“Wolf Man … is straight-up pure horror. I think of it as a companion piece to The Invisible Man. I didn’t want this film to be a nostalgic or a retro Wolf Man film in any way. [I was] actually writing down in my notepad everything that’s been done, and then saying, ‘Okay, that’s the list of what not to do’. I’m hoping [audiences will] go in and say, ‘Oh wow, I haven’t seen that werewolf movie before’.”
So, what can you expect? Instead of relating back to previous incarnations of the titular beast, which most younger audiences won’t be familiar with anyway, expect Whannell to push the franchise forward into bold new territory.
Everything we know about Wolf Man based on the trailer
Essentially, the Wolf Man trailer tells us Mother Nature can always produce an apex predator bigger and scarier than man. Its opening shot of an eerie atmospheric setting in New Zealand is cool because it works well both to set the tone of the film and to enhance the film’s vibe. It draws our eye to the natural beauty of insects in harmony with nature then hits us with a predatory attack in the animal kingdom, reminding us that Mother Nature can always create something bigger and scarier. Wolf Man shows us what that is when it comes to humans. It also reminds us there’s a little girl at the center of this mayhem, and you can count on that to pull at your heartstrings in a way the werewolf tale never has. Who will win this battle? Who will be stronger and scarier?
Why you should see Wolf Man
There have been plenty of werewolf movies over the years, but the first one to make an impact on audiences was 1941’s The Wolf Man. In 2010, Universal attempted to remake the story with The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins, and Hugo Weaving, but it was far from a box office success and didn’t particularly win over audiences. Whannell hopes to change that with his contemporary retelling.
Much like his stripped-down approach to The Invisible Man, Whannell’s Wolf Man puts the classic werewolf formula at the heart of a domestic drama story. This retelling will be all about the dark shadows surrounding what happens when a mother is tasked with protecting her young child from her own husband after he transforms into a bloodthirsty werewolf. And you know this is going to be heart-pounding not just because of the story and its perspective (or director) but because of Julia Garner.
Whannell’s filmography, combined with the impressive Wolf Man cast, makes the film a highly anticipated 2025 release. If Wolf Man succeeds, it could prove there’s more life left in these classic Universal monsters than 2017’s The Mummy would suggest.
Fingers, toes, and wolf claws crossed.
When will Wolf Man be released?
With so many changes happening behind the scenes, it comes as no surprise that Wolf Man will not meet its originally scheduled release date of October 2024. After a slew of delays, Wolf Man will be prowling around theaters on January 17, 2024.
Header Credit: Universal Pictures / Blumhouse / Empire
